Loving You is Hard
by HPITBBE
Summary: Her lip was violent-red, and she was shaking with grief. "Don't touch me James – how dare you! Don't – just please go away I DONT WANT TO SEE YOU!" In which Alice Prewett loves a guy who is too busy loving her best friend. L/J. R&R?
1. Prologue

**Dislcaimer:** I own nothing; this is all JKR's :)

**Summary: **Her lip was violent-red, and she was shaking with grief. "_Don't _touch me James – how dare you! Don't – just please go away I DONT WANT TO SEE YOU!" In which Alice Prewett loves a guy who is too busy loving her best friend. L/J. R&R?

**Genre:** Drama Drama _Drama _and romance. Cause what's life without it? ;)

**Rating: **T

and a HUGE thank you and love to TheHorcruxHunter, an absolutely SENSATIONAL beta. :)

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Prologue

_Is that bloody owl in my dream? At least, I hope it's an owl._

She placed a pillow over her face and tried to block out the persistent tapping on her window. Only a Hogwarts bird was capable of making such a racket. Maybe the owl forgot that school had been over two weeks ago and that the book lists don't come out until August.

Her night had already been interrupted by mild nightmares, but it was sweetened by sweet sixth year memories that she has had been storing in the innermost crevice of her mind to pull out and smile at on a rainy day.

The next tap made an impact that would surely shatter her window at the next attempt. Figuring it would be prudent to blast the bird out of sight with her wand rather than have her parents overreact and call the Magical Law Enforcement, she got up with a groan.

She pulled on her midnight blue nightgown and tied it tightly around her waist. She slipped on her ever-white unicorn slippers (that seemed to defy dirt and grime – she could have sworn her dad had gotten them embellished with some type of goblin enchantment) and walked over to her large window.

Nothing there.

She rubbed her eyes tiredly. The leaves of the family apple tree rustled gently, almost like a soft sigh. She surveyed the area quickly, very cognizant of the time and the structure of the Prewett Estate; its blueprint made it very easy for a wizard with bad intentions to hide. She retreated a few steps to grab her wand, keeping her eyes fixated on the window.

A dark silhouette seemed to appear of nowhere, and she shakily held out her wand.

Then, a light chuckle.

"Who do you think you are? An over-age witch?"

She lowered her wand at once and quickly pulled her window all the way up in one swift motion.

"James?" she called out, aghast. It was two weeks into summer vacation, and James was already at her house? A new record for Potter.

"Alice?" he said teasingly.

She leaned out the window and looked at his face. He smiled at her surprise and came a little closer. He was on his new broom, wearing an old black shirt and jeans. His hair was being easily manipulated by the wind and his cheeks were a bit flushed, most likely from flying as far as he had to her house. She didn't know what to say. She was acutely aware of her nightgown, but she didn't care. All she knew was that James Potter had come to her house...at night... looking disheveled, but messily perfect. Her heart seemed to be caught in her throat, because she seemed unable to formulate the necessary words required to invite him in. He must have realized that she was momentarily stunned, and he quietly flew into her room while she wordlessly moved aside.

After a few seconds, she smiled very widely.

She watched him as he leaned his broom delicately on the wall adjacent to her bed. He stroked it with the same gentleness a mother would give her newborn. She bit her lip to hide her stupid grin.

She reminded herself that her parents were still asleep and would not take kindly to finding a boy – but he wasn't a boy anymore, she observed, interrupting her own train of thought. He had grown maybe only an inch, but she spotted a faint shadow of a minor incident involving a razor on his chin, and his hair had gotten noticeably thicker.

He looked at her when she giggled at the thought of her James using a razor.

"What's so funny?" he asked with his hands in his pockets. He strolled over to sit on her bed.

"You treat your broom better than your friends," she lied. She wrapped her arms around herself, even though it wasn't cold.

He shrugged and just smirked. "Nice shoes," he commented.

"Thanks." She wiggled her toes and the little unicorns bobbed their heads as if in agreement with him. Why was she being so quiet and awkward? "Why are you here so early?"

He shrugged again. "I dunno. I felt like it. Mum and Dad already know I'm gone, so they're not worried or anything." He looked at her and she felt compelled to say something else, although she didn't know why.

"When's Sirius coming over?"

"Whenever he feels like it, I suppose. There's a really nice breeze in here," he said. He reclined on her bed and supported his weight with his elbow, closing his eyes contentedly.

She really liked this – just James and her, kidding around, doing nothing in her room. But what nagged on the back of her mind was the fact that it should feel natural, completely natural for her, like James and Quidditch - yet it didn't for some reason.

Because James was James, he thought nothing of the fact that he came by two weeks after school had ended; because she was Alice, it meant everything to her.

She chewed on her lip and walked over to the bed, casting a last look out the window. The night really was lovely.

She sat down, closed her eyes, and pretended she could feel the same kind of peace James felt.

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	2. James and Lily

**Disclaimer: **Nope, I'm not JKR. Not at all. Just an aspiring writer using her template :)

Reviews please? They make my world go round :)

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Chapter One

Mrs. Leah gripped her shopping bag tightly to herself as she walked down Canary Lane. She thought about what her husband would want to eat for dinner, and mentally came up with a list of meals she could prepare. She also had the kids to think about...she sighed, but with a fleeting smile.

She looked across the street and saw a tall, good looking boy headed towards a young girl who was too busy fiddling with her hands to notice that she was right in his path. He looked straight ahead, almost cocky in his gait; it seemed he was under the impression that he could plow through any crowd with the expectation that they would maneuver around him.

Mrs. Leah considered yelling at the young redhead to look up - or throwing a tomato at the gangly wizard who was about a good half foot taller than the young girl. In the end, she didn't get the chance to really deliberate on her choices; as she had predicted, the two bumped into each other. Her contempt of the arrogant-looking boy was quickly forgotten once he caught the girl in his arms as she stumbled forward.

_This is what love stories are made of_, Mrs. Leah thought. She smiled to herself and shook her head. She proceeded to walk home, thinking of the days when she and Lionel had been madly in love.

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"Oh, I'm sorry – James?_" _Lily said breathlessly after she had regained her footing. She blinked hard, almost as if she believed the action would transport her to a different world – one without a James Potter looking down at her.

"Fancy seeing you here, Evans," James said, frowning slightly as if he could not quite believe what he was seeing.

"James?" Lily repeated. Suddenly, she glared up at him. "Don't you watch where you're going?"

James opened his mouth, and then closed it in a rather comical way. "Why am I suddenly the bumper and you the bump-ee? You're the one who apologized. I am clearly the bump-ee here," he said coolly once he regained his voice.

With her small body and striking red hair and defiant eyes and just her _presence_, right there in front of him, the strangeness of the situation slowly sank into him.

He just had just run into Lily Evans – _Lily Evans – _in Canary Lane. It was odd, yes, and satisfying, almost like seeing your parents kissing in the sitting room. It looked out of place, but you knew it was a good thing.

She was never seen in wizard territory in the summer – at least by him. He had always assumed she stayed within Muggle boundaries to be with her family. He bit his tongue and stared determinedly back.

Her mouth was moving rapidly; if he had been paying any attention he would have summoned a quick retort.

" – and are you even listening to me, Potter? What are you doing here?" she asked abruptly. He blinked several times. What _was_ he doing there?

Most of the gas had clearly been wasted on her unappreciated monologue; her voice now was laced with curiosity.

"Uh, I'm actually going to Alice's," he said slowly, as if saying the words would cause her to step out of his way and walk away.

"Oh," Lily said. At James' confused stare, she explained: "Alice tells me you practically spend your summers there. I completely forgot. Not that it is any of your business, but I sent her an owl. I'm on my way there, too."

James waited with a blank stare. And waited. After a minute, he wasn't disappointed.

"Wait a damn second. If you're going there now, and so am I," she mused aloud, "then that means…"

James clapped his hands lightly. "Good job, Evans."

She glanced at a spot behind his head before muttering, "Bugger."

Her head snapped back to her fellow Gryffindor.

"Cat got your tongue, Potter?" Lily said quite rudely. "I thought you would say something stupid about how it's 'meant to be' and all that rubbish."

The wizard snapped out of his reverie. "Don't give yourself too much credit," he said. "Besides, it's a good thing you ran into me, or you would have gone straight to Malfoy's Manor." He indicated the direction Lily was going in with a jerk of his thumb.

"I was?" Lily asked. She raised her eyebrows and glanced over James' shoulder as if expecting Lucius to present himself.

"Trust me, all those pillars and marble are just part of a cover up. They're all filthy pigs," James spat disgustedly.

Lily frowned. "I thought I had already passed it...Alice told me I would -"

"Yeah, well Alice is no good with that. Associating directions with landmarks and stuff, I mean," James said.

"Are you sure?" she asked skeptically, walking around him to take a closer look at the magnificent house. "It doesn't seem like something she'd miss."

"Of course it does," James said testily. "The Dewberry's house looks exactly the same, except with a subtle bluish tinge. That's probably the house you passed."

"Well I come from a suburban area, I don't see mansions on every corner," Lily said defensively with a meaningful look at Malfoy's house. "They all look the same to me."

"In any case, follow me," he said bluntly. He began walking before he realized that there was only one shadow alongside him. He turned around, rolling his eyes.

"Evans?" he shouted, gesturing to his right.

She waved at him and started walking in the opposite direction.

"_Get your arse over here!" _he cursed.

"I'm not your dog, Potter_," _he heard her holler back, her voice having tapered at each word.

After counting to twenty in his mind, he jogged back to Lily who was looking ahead.

"I know where I'm going, Potter," she said firmly, sensing his tall frame just behind her own.

He rolled his eyes.

"I'm sorry, were you the cartographer who designed the map for this ruddy place? No, I didn't think so," he snapped. "Follow me before you walk into a slimy git."

Lily stopped and rounded on James, her green eyes narrowed. "I have faith in Alice. It's good to see you have such faith in her."

"Are you daft? I've gone to her house for the past five years. My house is a few miles off; I know this place like the back of my hand. Stop being such a stubborn mule."

"As soon as you stop acting like a know-it-all prat. I'm not your dog, James," she huffed. She started walking again.

James bit the inside of his cheek. "You know what, Evans? Keep being proud. Just know that I'll come back for you when Malfoy remembers who your parents are!"

He regretted it as soon as it left his mouth. He hoped she would come back to curse him into the tenth circle of hell.

He was certain she had not moved an inch, but she also didn't retreat. "Listen Evans," he said quietly, inching closer, "that was a really nasty thing for me to say."

"Go to hell," she spat venomously as she quickly darted in the direction he had been trying to steer her in all along.

At least she was talking to him and his limbs were still intact, he thought.

"Evans, wait – come on, you can't ignore me forever. That was a really foul thing for me to say, okay? Forgive me? Stop walking so fast. Yes I'm a git and every name in the book and you're right. I was just mad, okay? Turn a corner here."

She complied silently.

"My parents are good people," Lily said harshly.

At last she was speaking. He had been beginning to fear the worst – to be eternally shunned.

"I'm sure they're the best people I'll ever meet," James said quickly, pouncing on her words as soon as they left her mouth.

Lily eyed him angrily, and James assumed an earnest face.

"Just because they can't do what I can doesn't mean they're lower than I am – or anybody else," she pronounced heatedly, still regarding James carefully.

"I believe you," he said.

"Anybody can wave a wand and make funny things happen, but not everybody can be good."

James swallowed hard, the weight of her words stewing like acid in his stomach.

When she drew out her hand to stop him from walking into a stray branch in his haste, his heart warmed. James didn't say anything, because opening his mouth would provide an opening to the heaps of joy he was feeling inside at this small gesture despite the guilt he felt about what he'd said earlier. He smiled crookedly and hooked his thumbs around the loops of his jeans.

Lily then saw his hand go up to his hair, but he only swiped the fringe out of his eyes.

"We're almost there," he muttered. Lily didn't respond. After a moment, she seemed unable to stop herself from asking,

"Why are you walking? I mean, it's just that, you love to use your broom whenever you can," Lily said quietly, stepping over a few stray branches.

"I didn't feel like using my broom. I don't know why." What an odd question.

"Maybe your head got too fat to fit on it," Lily said airily.

Ah, how swiftly she changes her game up, James thought.

"Maybe my broom anticipated you and didn't want to be burdened with Your Highness," he fired back just as lightly.

"Maybe you're an arse."

"Maybe you like it," James said, peeking at her from the corner of his eye. They were lightly poking each other, each daring to puncture.

Lily got quiet again.

As they walked, she noticed a pale, gold leaf on the ground and she stooped down to pick it up.

"How pretty," she said. It was surprisingly not crisp, but soft. She raised herself up and was ready to show James when she saw that nearly his whole head was clad in yellow leaves, with small areas of black hair poking through. It was only when she touched her own head that she felt the oddly feathery feeling of her new hat.

She glanced back at James, who was looking at her with a goofy grin, before he seemed to jolt into his senses and caught a leaf before it fluttered to the ground.

"I like this, it's very stylish, no?" he said, striking a pose. For a split second, he looked almost blond. Lily could not take her eyes away from him, even as he began to shake the leaves from his hair like a wet dog.

"Lily, are you okay?" James asked, removing the last of the gold from his raven hair. Her eyes were vacant, as if she were simultaneously trying to recall a memory and repress it.

He'd never seen her so subdued. It was like she had caved in on herself. Was it because of what he'd said? Crucio him a hundred times over if he was the reason her fire had dimmed, he pleaded with an unknown deity.

He put his hand at the nape of her neck to pull out the last leaf, and she snapped out of her stupor and placed her hand on his. The leaf was trapped in his hand.

"It's nothing," she said.

Just as James was about to ask again, she withdrew her hand. "It's just something that happened that shouldn't be bothering me now." She looked up at him with narrowed eyes.

They were nearing Alice's house; it was just around the corner. Lily still hadn't said a word, and James opened his eyes with a realization as if it were hidden among the clouds all along.

"It's about that bloke - Cory, right?" he asked. Even with her hair down and hiding her profile, he saw her cheeks bloom with color.

"I don't want to talk about it."

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	3. James, Lily, Alice, Sirius, and Peter

**Disclaimer: **Sorry to disappoint, ya'll. I didn't invent the Potter world. That al belong to Mrs. Rowling and Warner Bros.

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Chapter Two 

Hours after the skies had stretched and yielded the sun, Alice was at her mirror, slowly brushing her long, chestnut hair. James was most likely downstairs eating breakfast with her mother, and today was the day they would get their letters from Hogwarts.

She was really hoping her letter would be bulkier than any of the rest – she had always desired to be Head Girl since her mother told her it was practically tradition. Wearing the badge would bring the family great honor, and it would be a great reward for all the hard work she had put in since she first stepped foot in Hogwarts.

Once they had scanned their reading lists, she and James would go to Diagon Alley and buy their things. Sometimes they were accompanied by Peter, Sirius, or Remus (usually all three), but she really hoped they would all be busy today.

With a full turn in front of the mirror, she eyed the outfit and hoped it didn't seem like she had rummaged through her closet for a good quarter of an hour just to end up with a white blouse, light jeans and tennis shoes. She grasped the small flower clip she had placed in her hair, and gingerly removed it.

Alice looked into the mirror and at her face, whose cheekbones were as wide as her jaw. She grimaced lightly at her reflection and then made her way to her door. As she was poised to leave, she heard a rustle of feathers and turned around with surprise to see an owl swooping in. Doesn't anyone use the door anymore, she thought dryly.

It was gray, small, yet still regal-looking. It stood quite still in the middle of the floor. Alice frowned.

"Is this from Lily?" she asked the bird. It only looked back at her unblinkingly, as if her question was too foolish to warrant an answer.

"She never writes this early," she muttered, casting a sour look at the creepy bird that had not made a move. It hooted once.

"I don't like you, but thanks, Ash," she said cheerfully, taking the thin rolled parchment in her hands. With a loud hoot, he zoomed towards the upper half of her window, only to crash into it.

Her grin slipped off her face. "You've got to be joking." The windows weren't that clean to the point that you couldn't distinguish inside from outside. She was clearly getting her reward for her attitude. Alice shook her head.

Almost as if he had read her thoughts, he left her a pleasant surprise on her floor before taking care to leave through the bottom opening. Her mouth dropped open.

"_Ash_!" she yelled at an empty room.

"Feisty, like its owner," James commented from right behind her; he had obviously witnessed the entire episode.

Alice turned around and glared at him, before it melted like ice under the sun at their proximity.

"No big deal," he said softly. He glanced at the pile of droppings and took out his wand. With a flick of his wrist, the pile disappeared.

"You're not supposed to use magic outside of school," she said breathlessly.

"Learn to break the rules, Prewett," James said dryly, breaking what Alice thought was a moment. He blew the tip of his wand as if it was emitting smoke, and stepped over the threshold. "Besides, both your parents are magical, how're they supposed to know I did it? They only detect if magic was used within an area."

She could not argue with the simple fact, so she pursed her lips. Her eyes lingered on the now clean spot before she motioned for him to come downstairs with her. Not a very fairytale beginning to her day.

As they walked downstairs to breakfast, she looked at James, who was for some reason looking at her hand. She glanced down and was surprised to see Lily's letter.

"Oh, it's from Lily. I forgot to read it."

"I see," James said with a shadow of a smirk. "Aren't you going to read it?"

"Eventually."

"Is she...coming here?" he asked nonchalantly, looking at the tapestry he had seen so many times he could recite the positions of each image. She couldn't see his face.

"I wouldn't know," she snapped. She thought about how it sounded. "Sorry...it's the morning and all," she mumbled.

"Yep."

She was not naïve, or stupid. She saw the way his mouth turned into a loose cannon with her best friend around and how he seemed aware of her every movement. But Lily didn't like James. It was that thought alone that gave her peaceful sleep. If there was one thing she was secure about in this world, it was that he and Lily were just a phase. He could get his fill of her this year, but Alice would have him next year...and the year after that. They had a lifetime to make it happen.

"Oh yeah, Li - Sirius is here!" James said suddenly.

"L'Sirius? Studying French again, James?" she commented.

James chuckled too much for what her less-than-witty remark deserved. Probably spiked his own pumpkin juice...

"So Sirius is here?" Sirius was witty and very entertaining when things are got a bit mundane. "Wouldn't I have heard fireworks or something in the kitchen?"

"Why would we orchestrate a show without my lovely Alice there?" James said.

She just gave him a lopsided grin because owing to the uncontrollable, rampaging butterflies in her stomach, she wasn't able to do much else.

"ALICE!" Sirius bellowed suddenly from the kitchen.

"Merlin!" she squeaked.

Her first instinct was to hide behind James before Sirius could crush her in one of his deathly hugs.

James laughed out loud and ran ahead; he left her like a deer caught in the headlights as Sirius, that monster of a man, came lunging at her. She just stood with her arms in front of her and he came at her with wild, bulging, happy Sirius-eyes - those opaque orbs that made you instantly happy to see him

"Hi, Sirius," she said meekly, holding her arms out for a hug. He enveloped her in his arms and squeezed so tight she kicked, laughed, and choked. He put her down gently and said, "What are you waiting for? There's food! And a surprise," he said slyly.

He skipped off into the kitchen while she trailed him clutching her middle.

"Stop trying to kill me when you see me!" she shouted after his figure and entered the kitchen.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a flash of scarlet and knew at once what her surprise was. Her pain was suddenly gone. It suddenly clicked. James knew all along - did they come together? No, she wouldn't.

She looked at Lily's general direction with a calculating expression. She vaguely saw Sirius catch James' eye.

"Oh! Lily!" Alice yelped, a greeting long overdue.

"Alice, you all right there? You look like you've seen the Grim," she said. She got up and gave her a careful hug, knowing full well what Black was capable of.

Lily let her go and looked at her best friend up and down with a smile. "You look great!"

"So do you – but when did you get here?" She did look great. Her long lashes surrounded jade irises, and her blood-red hair gently skimmed the top of her breasts.

She frowned. "Didn't you get my letter?"

"She said she would open it 'eventually'," James chimed in, looking at Lily.

"That would be a delightful answer if I was talking to you, Potter," Lily said lightly.

"Ah, but you were."

"I was clearly referring to Alice."

"But you wanted to refer to me, admit it."

"You're a prat, stop talking to me."

"But I'm _your_ prat," James said with a wink.

Alice watched this wearily. She hoped they wouldn't do this all year. It would be great if Lily at least got along with James; it would make things much easier once she and James...figured it out in the foreseeable future. It would be easier once they were both Heads…with the Head's Common Room, she thought slyly.

"Boring," Sirius drawled. "What is this pansy banter?"

"Shut up, Black," James and Lily said. James looked at Lily with a small grin and Lily exhaled heavily through her nose. She turned towards Alice.

"When are we getting our letters?"

"I dunno, probably in about an hour, it's still pretty early. Let's eat," she said, taking the seat next to James and across from Lily. Sirius sat down next to Lily and waited.

"Bacon and eggs, please," James said to his plate. The bacon and eggs appeared, fragrant and ready to be eaten. Following his lead, they all ordered their breakfasts with a drink. It was a comfortable silence, broken by a few burps and small talk about school.

"So, Potter, you like coming here?"

Alice saw James startle a little at being directly acknowledged by Lily. She chewed her toast thoughtfully while she waited for James to answer.

"Yeah, this is like my second home. Alice is great," he said, sloppily wiping his mouth with a large napkin.

Alice tried not to look too pleased with herself, so she took a big chug of orange juice.

"You too, Black? This is my first time here," Lily said conversationally, expertly eating her eggs with a knife and fork. "What a good-looking house."

"Thanks," Alice said mildly. "It's a bit much though. I'd much prefer something a little cozier."

"I know what you mean," Lily said, setting her plate aside. "I like places you don't get lost in."

"You'd hate James' house, then," Sirius told her offhandedly. "This house is nothing compared to his -"

"Shut up, Pad," James muttered. "It's about this size, and I hate it, too."

"Where's Remus?" Lily asked Sirius. "And Peter? I thought you came in a pack". She looked at James when she said that.

"Moony will be ecstatic to know you're in love with him," James said evenly.

"He's my favorite marauder."

"How about me!" Sirius cried, stung.

James ignored him. "You're still my favorite girl though."

Alice stabbed her bacon repeatedly, putting all her energy into each deliberate jab. Sirius eyed her warily and waited until she looked at him.

"What?" She shrugged. "I like my bacon in bits."

Suddenly she dropped her fork in her bacon and pushed her plate forward. Then she got up and smiled tightly at Lily, who looked concerned.

"I'm going to the sitting room. Lily?" she said pointedly.

"Coming," she muttered.

"Just leave the plates – they'll vanish. But clean up anything after – well, yeah you guys know the drill," Alice said without turning around as she headed to the sitting room.

"They're going to go play Quidditch," Lily said to Alice once she had settled on the lilac, carpeted floor, When Alice didn't answer, Lily touched her hand. "Hey, are you okay?"

"Oh," Alice said absently. "Yeah, it's just I haven't seen you, and I just really wanted to talk to you. See how you've been." She smiled earnestly at Lily.

"I've missed you. There's not much company with Petunia." She twirled her red hair in her hands. Alice looked at her sympathetically.

"But I've handled her in my own way." Alice's eyes opened wide. Lily laughed at her friend's expression. "I didn't jinx her or anything. But I let her have her space. Her new boyfriend is just" – she shook her head disgustedly – "a right _nightmare._" She wrapped her hands around an imaginary neck and shook it. This made them laugh.

This was why she loved Lily with all her heart. She was just – she didn't even know how to explain it. The sister Merlin forgot to give her.

"I guess it was weird to imagine James and me coming together, huh?" Lily said wryly.

Alice readjusted herself so that she was lying down on her stomach. "Sort of." She considered Lily carefully. "I'm more surprised you both came in one piece."

"Well, we did have a small row about…" she trailed off and began to blush. "It was really stupid, honestly."

Alice leaned forward on her elbows. "About what?" she asked hesitantly.

"How to get to your house," she mumbled. "I told you it was stupid."

Alice exhaled silently. "Oh, well…where's the debate? He knows this house better than he knows his own," she said with a touch of pride.

Lily closed her eyes. "I'm always at my worst around James, for some bloody reason. It's like I throw anything resembling rational thought into the wind."

Alice shrugged awkwardly. "I don't know why you guys fight so much. He's a good guy."

"You're right, he isn't Malfoy, but he isn't Longbottom either," Lily said.

Alice laughed out loud. "Who would give Longbottom the time of day?"

Lily frowned. "He's very good at Defense, and he's not bad looking…"

Alice beamed. "You like Frank?"

She got quiet. Alice remembered with a jolt about the last day of school.

"Oh, Lily," she said quietly. "I forgot about Cory. I'm sorry." She got up and sat next to Lily.

She waved this aside. "It's just hard, you know. Knowing you had a stable relationship and having it just explode in your face the last day."

"Listen," Alice said darkly. "Cory did not deserve you. No guy deserves you. He was a prick and you know it."

"He was the first guy I loved, Alice," she said thickly, looking at her hands. "I was so angry at myself, and at him, and now I'm just a mess every day."

"You'll rebound this year. Haven't you ever heard the saying, the best revenge is to live well, or whatever?" Alice said bracingly.

"I just want to forget about it." Her lip was swollen. She broke into a smile. "I'm being really stupid and emotional."

"Alice? Lily? Hello," Peter greeted to the surprise of the witches. Lily rubbed her hands over her face to get rid of the tear streaks.

"Peter? Hi! I thought you weren't coming," she said.

He gave her a weak smile. "Remus isn't coming. He's under the weather." He looked around. "Where are Sirius and James?"

"Playing Quidditch," Alice supplied. She looked over her shoulder to the door. "Or not." She giggled. Lily and Peter looked to the door.

"Did you guys get run over by a hippogriff?" Lily said, her voice thick with amusement. Their robes were streaked with mud and they had the air of just having finished a dirty, unethically-played game.

"'Did you guys get run over by a hippogriff?'" James repeated in a high-pitched voice. When Lily flashed her eyes at him he said, "No, sweetheart, but we did get our Hogwarts letters." In unison, Sirius and James held up their thick envelopes.

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	4. James Lily Alice Sirius Peter: Take Two

**Disclaimer: I'm not JK Rowling, ya'll. Therefore I do not own Harry Potter.**

**If there was any confusion at all, I'm just really sorry. Since I added a Prologue, Fanfic keeps calling Chapter 1 "Chapter 2", Chapter 2 "Chapter 3" and so on, so that confused me for a while. **

**Besides my little mess up, I really hope you enjoy reading Chapter Three!**

**Reviews are always appreciated :)**

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Chapter Three

After a much needed shower and quick snack, James sat on the couch, directly above Lily who was sprawled on the floor, while Sirius opted to stay standing.

Sirius ripped his letter open impatiently, prompting Alice to say, "No need to tear it apart like a dog," in which Sirius just winked at her and proceeded to take out the letter.

Sirius' eyes narrowed into thin slits as he read it. His mouth framed the words "September first," and then he scoffed.

"There's not one" – he paused to scan the rest of the parchment quickly – "mention of our brilliant end-of-year feast prank. This is bullshit. Did he mention it in yours, Prongs?" He shot a sharp look at James, who could not tear his eyes away from one section of the parchment.

"It's not in mine, Sirius. Thanks for asking," Peter said. He sat lounging on the sofa on the opposite end of where James was seated. Alice leaned against the fine leather.

"Sorry Pete," Sirius said distractedly. He took out his wand and tapped the parchment as if Dumbledore had left a code to be deciphered.

"Why should he write to you about your idiotic scheme?" Lily asked, looking up at him.

"He always does," Sirius said. "We're his favorites."

"Dumbledore doesn't have favorites."

"Yes he does. That's why he made Moony prefect," he said, as if the fact were obvious. "And now he'll choose one of us to be Head Boy."

Immediately following Sirius' last words was a small 'pop', and the spacious room suddenly became very thick with odorless, purple smoke.

"James! Have you gone mad?" Alice cried, who had seen his wand jerk moments before.

"So sorry," James said, not sounding sorry in the least. "Trying to think of a good first day prank."

Sirius made the smoke disappear with an irritable flick of his wrist. The smoke slowly evaporated into nothing.

"Yes," he said, "and that's great and all if it wasn't a trick a first-year could perform."

When James just smiled sheepishly and looked outside, Sirius shook his head.

"Now that that's over," Lily said looking at Alice briefly as if wondering why she and James were such good friends, "Dumbledore is the greatest wizard of our age; you're hardly on his to-do list."

James spluttered and then roared with laughter, not unlike a dam that had been blasted open due to a heavy flood.

"Merlin help me," Lily sighed with a disdainful glance at James, who was clutching his stomach.

"And we're the greatest wizards of our year," Sirius said matter-of-factly, pointing to the still sniggering James and himself.

"Don't make me laugh." She wasn't laughing; she knew perfectly well that James and Sirius had the highest marks in the year, except, of course, in Charms and Potions. This thought kept her silently smug.

"James has a lot of O., don't you, James?" Alice said. "But you still couldn't beat me in Charms."

"Doesn't matter, I still have two more O.," James said unconcernedly. "One more than even Sirius, in fact."

"That's because we weren't thick enough to stick with Divination, right, Sirius?" Peter remarked, peering at Sirius with watery eyes.

"How right you are, Pete," Sirius said evenly. "If I had taken that rubbish of a class I would have easily gotten an O. But we all know why you decided to stay, Potter."

James smiled tightly and said, "Getting back to the point at hand, Sirius is right, Evans." Lily raised an eyebrow. "We are the brightest of our year." He had no intention of letting everyone know that Professor Toll had predicted his offspring – a small, green eyed boy, to James' utter glee – on an otherwise uneventful day of class.

"Hogwarts -" Lily started indignantly.

"Even outside of Hogwarts, m'dear," James interrupted wisely. "I've been abroad - I've seen other wizards at work, and frankly, they suck." Alice giggled. Lily glared at her, and Alice became silent at once.

"See? Alice agrees," James said as if that ended the discussion.

"I don't care if you and Sirius grow up to be better wizards than Dumbledore himself! Your pranks are vile and tasteless. Ergo -"

"– who says 'ergo'?" James whispered to Peter.

"- Dumbledore would never be inclined to put any of you in a position of power," she finished firmly. "And don't expect a letter."

"Lily's right," Alice chimed in. "I doubt Dumbledore would give any of you any authority. I reckon he only gave Remus a badge because he thought he could put an end to it all." For all it was worth, she thought Lily was right, but she hoped with all her might that she was wrong and that Dumbledore had a temporary lapse in judgment.

"Thank you, Alice," Lily said pointedly.

"Moony is the mastermind behind half our pranks," James snorted.

"He's more responsible than you two, but he's just as bad as you are. Not even Remus could be Head Boy," Lily retorted.

"And that leaves James and I," Sirius said with a tone of finality.

"You have such an inflated opinion of yourselves," Lily said disgustedly. "Humility would serve you well. Might as well proclaim you're more brilliant than McGonagall who is one of seven registered Animagi's this century, I might add!"

"Let's not get crazy," James said slowly, whose eyes flickered to Sirius' and then back to Lily.

Alice sighed.

"Why are we all arguing again?"

"Because Black is under the impression that Dumbledore favors the most notorious pranksters in all of Hogwarts," Lily said stubbornly.

"Hey," Sirius said warningly.

"Don't point your wand at me."

"Stop belittling me."

"You're acting like a child," Lily said dismissively. "Dumbledore has no business writing you anything. Besides, it's McGonagall that writes home letters."

"As far as _you _know," Sirius said shot back. "And he'd have to be a fool not to at least reprimand us for that." He seemed to take it personally that Lily was indifferent to their pranks.

"All these Head Boy talks…" James murmured under his breath. "Head Boy…"

"Mate?" Peter prodded, looking at James who was staring distantly into space and no longer paying attention to the banter between Sirius and Lily.

"Oh!" Alice gasped suddenly, looking up from her letter. Sirius threw her an annoyed, this-better-be-good glance. "Well, I don't know if this means anything." She cleared her throat. "'_And kindly remind your troublesome friends that it is not absolutely necessary to end the year on a quite literal bang.'_ Ha."

Lily's face was akin to someone who had been forced to eat pus. By stark contrast, Sirius had the look of a young fan that had been told the Chudley Cannons were destined for hopes higher than last place.

"Excellent," he said brightly. "Don't look so sour, Lils." His mood seemed to have been lifted by a thousand meters.

Lily glared at him.

"It's not my fault Dumbledore doesn't pay any special attention to _you,_" he said sweetly, with a smile that sloped off the side of his face.

"If Dumbledore makes any one of you Head Boy, I will firmly believe, until otherwise proven wrong, that you hoodwinked him," Lily said, color rising in her cheeks.

"Brilliant," James squeaked. Everybody snapped their heads in the direction of the flushed wizard.

His voice had raised several embarrassing octaves – not unlike an elf. He smiled sheepishly. "I was…?" He cleared his throat. "I mean" – his body was refusing to cooperate with him – "yeah," he finished lamely.

Sirius arched an eyebrow. "Come again, elf?"

"Blimey, Sirius," James said, his voice stronger, but still in a socially unacceptable range. He looked at Lily and winked at her almost impulsively.

"Sorry, Potter. I don't swing that way," she said, eying him curiously.

Peter whipped his wand out in an invisible blur. "I'll fix it for you," he suggested, gesturing to James's throat

"James," Alice interrupted. She surveyed him carefully. "What's that under your thigh?"

He shifted slightly on the sofa.

"Don't move!" she exclaimed. She scowled at James, who was sitting still and simultaneously trying to divert Peter's wand away from his throat with vulgar hand gestures. She crawled towards James, who sat firmly on…whatever he was sitting on.

Alice could tell he was trying to ignore her, but she knew when he was hiding something. He would refuse to look her in the eyes.

"Let me see," she hissed with a gleam in her eye.

Before James could reply, Lily shouted at Sirius. The two seemed to have resumed their argument.

"Stop making faces at me."

"I'm sorry, what did not-Dumbledore's favorite say?" he said with a hand to his ear.

"She said," Lily huffed, angrily reaching into her pocket and then brandishing the gleaming badge in Sirius' face, "I'M HOGWARTS' NEW HEADGIRL."

The last word fell as hard as her badge as it fell from her hand and dropped to the floor.

A silence followed in which Sirius's face became frozen with shock and Peter simply looked bored. "I didn't even see you open your letter…impressive," he commented.

Alice felt the blood drain from her face.

"Really?" James said numbly to Lily.

Lily hesitated, turned her head towards Alice, and nodded weakly, her eyes slightly wavering from Alice's gaze.

It took roughly three breaths for Sirius to ease into a cheek-to-cheek smile, thoughts of the entire argument forgotten. He jumped up from the sofa to give Lily a congratulatory hug while she tried to wriggle away.

In one quick swipe, Alice grabbed the Head Boy Badge from the sofa and gripped it tight until her knuckles turned white.

It was still warm from when James had been sitting on it.

"Well," Alice said quietly, "Lily? I found your new partner." She saw that Lily had given up trying to wrestle Sirius and had just settled for a hug.

"Thanks, Sirius – whose badge is that?" Lily asked sharply.

Sirius, who had let her go, directed his attention immediately to James, who was looking anywhere except his searching eyes. Lily followed his lead and stared at James.

"Surprise?" he said softly with a small shrug.

Lily was gob-smacked, both of her points now having been proven wrong nastily in her face. Sirius' smile was simply radiant.

"Wormtail!" he yelled. "Our James is Head Boy! Write to Moony! _Prongs is Head Boy!_" He punched the air with his fist and Peter smiled widely at James, who rather grimaced.

"Congratulations, Evans," James muttered, and stood up. He marched upstairs, leaving behind an unpleasant atmosphere.

Sirius' smile faltered, and he looked at Peter awkwardly. There was something awfully wrong with the picture.

Alice instinctively made to go seek James, but Lily placed a hand on her shoulder and said, bracingly, "I'll go talk to him."

Feeling as if someone had pushed her aside in haste to get to the front of the line, Alice shook her head and said, "No, I think he needs to -"

"I need to talk to him, he can go sulk later," Lily said determinedly and walked briskly to the stairs before Alice could stop her.

"He'll be up in my room!" Lily heard Alice shout irritably. She figured it was wrong of her to put Alice in her place right in her own home. She made a mental note to apologize later.

She had forgotten to ask where her room was. There were rooms on both sides of the hallway, and even a curious, square door directly above her head; she stepped aside quickly as if an anvil had placed a mark upon her head.

Lily walked slowly, taking care to look at each door. She hoped there was some sort of sign indicating her best friend's room; she did not fancy snooping around in this unfamiliar castle-like home.

After passing several threatening- doors, she came across a door that was left ajar. She peeked inside and saw James sitting on the floor with his arms wrapped around his knees, his head leaning back against the creamy white wall, facing the door.

"Give me your worst, Evans."

There was something about his tone that made Lily forget all her earlier words about Dumbledore and hoodwinks. At the same time, she wanted to lash out at him for no reason at all.

"Why?" she asked tonelessly, closing the door behind her. James eyes followed her as she sat on Alice's big bed. She sunk into it a little bit and she looked alarmed for a moment. He suppressed a small smile.

"Why am I Head Boy or why do I want you to give me your worst?" he replied dully.

Lily paused.

"Both."

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	5. James and Lily: Take Two

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter; JK Rowling and Warner Bros. do. :)**

**This chapter is ALLLL Lily and James for you LJ shippers. I hope you all like it!**

**Please read and review! **

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Chapter Four

"One, I don't know why I'm Head Boy. Two, I imagined that after finding out, you were going to tear my head off, strip me of my badge, and demand that Dumbledore be summoned to be questioned about his intentions," James said.

Lily nodded. "You were right," she said bluntly.

James didn't say anything. He closed his eyes.

"Why aren't you ecstatic?" Lily asked. "You were rambling about your grades and -"

"Believe it or not," James said slowly, his eyes still closed, "this badge is much heavier than what I had anticipated."

"I don't understand."

"Why do you want to?" James said, opening one eye. "You seemed pretty content to label me before. This is your moment, Evans. Tell me I'm not worth it. Seize it before I prove it."

"Oh, so now I'm the bad one here?" Lily said quietly. Something about Alice's room made her reluctant to speak too loud, as if the walls were made of glass.

James chuckled. "You're not bad, Evans."

"I'm not really sure of anything right now, to be frank. Out of all the responsible students in our year – okay, you may have the highest marks, but, regardless, you're a marauder."

"I knew he would make you Head Girl," James said calmly. He pulled the badge out of his pocket and examined its gleaming surface, a foreign item to him. "This is pretty cool."

Lily climbed off the bed and sat down somewhat awkwardly on the floor diagonal to him. James eyed her lazily.

"I think Dumbledore made a mistake," she said, looking him full in the face. "_I_'ve worked really hard for this, and I will take this very seriously."

"Alice really wanted to be Head Girl," James commented casually, lifting his head to look at her.

Lily looked thoughtful. "I felt awful about it. I really wanted her to be happy, I know her parents look upon the position very highly, but at the same time," she trailed off sadly.

"Bugger for her," James breathed. Lily didn't move.

"You deserve everything you get, Lily." He loosened his arms around his knees and sat cross legged as well. "I love Alice dearly, but she wasn't going to get it. No, not when you go to the same school."

"Thanks," Lily muttered, "but Alice is really bright. And a good leader."

"I suppose," James said airily. He looked directly into her eyes. "But _you_ got the badge, and I'm glad you did, too."

"Why Alice's room?" Lily blurted, thinking that if she countered his intense words with trivial ones it would restore equilibrium to their conversation.

James was unperturbed. "I feel at home here, even more than at home. I just feel good here." He smiled at something beyond the door. "I remember Peter crashed into her window with his broom. Ali was furious."

She could only imagine. Alice was a stickler for cleanliness.

"What did she do to him?"

"Nothing," James said simply.

"Nothing? This is the same Alice that blew a casket when I dropped a sweet on her floor, James."

"Well," James said, leaning forward and speaking with the air of telling a story around a bonfire, "It was night, and she was eating dinner with her parents. Peter and I were just playing Quidditch, a scrimmage, you know? And then suddenly Peter just _didn't come back_," he said dramatically. "And then I fly over and see the Peter flew into Alice's window and all I'm thinking is Alice is going to stick a foot up his arse so bad, not even magic could – well you get the idea" – Lily stifled a giggle – "and then I tell Peter to fly into that huge bloody tree she has smack dab in the middle of her garden, forest, whatever, and Alice comes into her room, screaming _bloody murder _let me tell you, and all she sees is me and -"

"You're so noble," Lily commented, foreseeing the ending from a mile away.

James glared at her, and then softened. He grinned.

"Let me finish. As I was saying, Alice came in, and no matter how I tried to convince her that Peter was in her bloody tree, she was thoroughly convinced that I had damaged her property, and well, who could deny an angry Alice?" he finished.

Lily couldn't help it, she laughed. It felt strange to laugh at something James said. It was akin to being angry when your boyfriend proposes, or acting surprised when your mum tells you that breakfast is ready.

"So what was the point of putting Peter in the tree when you were going to rat him out?" Lily asked.

"Well if he was there, Ali would have murdered him on the spot. For you see, this way, I was actually helping Peter by letting Ali take her anger out on me."

James smiled at her. "So there's your story you can tell the members of the Potter club."

Lily clenched her jaw and rolled her eyes, feeling as though the sun had been zapped from the sky.

"You're insufferable," she said, poised to stand up and leave, but Potter scooted forward on his hands and grabbed her small one.

"Wait," he pleaded. "I can't help it sometimes."

Lily looked at him and sighed. His hand lingered on hers, and it wasn't until she had raised both eyebrows at him did James let go.

"I'm glad you followed me up here," he said seriously, all traces of joking gone. Lily waited expectantly. "I wanted to run a proposition by you."

"Okay," she said.

"But firstly, do you really think I'll make a bad Head Boy?"

This was such a loaded question; she hesitated to make sure she delivered her answer as concisely as possible.

"I don't see why Dumbledore did it. I'm trying hard to see, and I suppose you have your traits in you that stand out. People listen to you," Lily said. "I mean that is an overrated quality, I think. You do influence people, and if given the chance, you can channel your mischievous energy to something worthwhile."

James considered this thoughtfully. He glanced down at his badge.

"The thing is, Sirius was sure this would be our ticket to absolute mayhem. But, I can't do that." He looked at Lily, as if waiting for her permission to continue. She nodded. "But this is different, this is weird. I did whatever I pleased as a student – now it's like Dumbledore has me pinned down, literally, with this badge.

"I would, normally, naturally, try to fight that, but this is Dumbledore. He doesn't hand out his trust like treacle tarts. Then I think of my dad."

"Why?"

"He's a retired Auror. He wasn't the best Auror, but he was the toughest. A lot of people counted on him. I can be counted on for a bit of humor, but not to lead a whole school."

"Well, I think you're making this out to be much bigger than it is. It really is just a notch above a prefect, a notch below the Headmaster and teachers," Lily said comfortingly.

"Blimey, I've never even been prefect!" James said loudly, his eyes widening a bit as if the thought had just occurred to him. "What's Dumbledore playing at?"

He threw his badge across the room and it ricocheted off the wall. Lily half expected the wall to be punctured. She looked back at the badge for a long time, until James muttered, "_Accio."_

Lily bit her lip.

"That would be like spitting right in Dumbledore's face," James went on, his ears slightly red with embarrassment at his lack of control. "It's foul and unimaginable, should I take this and flaunt it with the intentions of misusing it. I can't take this lightly," he murmured

A grin flickered on Lily's face. She could see small flashes of hope for his future. With a glint in his eye, James looked at her.

"Don't think Hogwarts will forget I've existed, Evans."

"What is your proposition?" Lily prompted before James could start his don't-think-I-still-can't-be-a-prankster speech.

"Okay so I'll try to take this seriously," he said quickly. "Now. In order to make this work" – he indicated the two of them – "we need to be friends. We're only as strong as we are united, weak as we are divided. Yes, I am aware our Headmaster uttered those words. What do you say?"

Lily was confused. She had figured all their animosity, at least the real animosity, had vanished in their sixth year.

"But we don't fight."

"Neither does me and your sister, but we aren't friends," James said impatiently. "This little thing we do where we don't talk and fight and in between jumping around our mutual friends is not friendship. There's no trust involved."

"We need to trust each other," Lily echoed, seeing his point. "I'll admit, Potter, I thought it was going to be hell working with you, and I sure as hell don't need you to catch me if I fall but" – James smiled cheekily – "it'll be nice for the school to rely on two people instead of one, and -"

"Bloody hell, Lily; is that a yes or no?"

"That's a yes but I need to know something," she said hastily, seeing James beaming.

"Sure, Lily, my _friend_," he emphasized with a grin.

"Do you still like me?" she asked quickly, without looking at him. She needed to know; it was important to know everything when it came to James.

"Oh." He wrinkled his brow, also averting her gaze as he shifted uncomfortably. "Well of course I do, Lily, but I won't be a nuisance about it. It is possible to be friends with someone you fancy."

"That's good to know."

Neither one of them knew what to say next. What do new friends say to each other? Lily took a lock of her hair and started twisted it absently around her finger. It was simpler when the relationship wasn't labeled.

"I know I can be a right git," James said quietly, "but I'm better at being a good friend."

Lily didn't say anything; all this relationship talk was making her queasy. It brought back memories of Cory and him talking about how solid their relationship was and how he'd never hurt her.

As if James had examined her thoughts, he said, "What happened with Cory?" His hazel eyes were intense.

Lily shook her head. She was in such a mood that she felt she could tell him anything she wanted, that she tortured her own cat, and he would understand her. But she wasn't naïve; this moment, it was just a faux moment. Even under the new friendship blanket, she couldn't suddenly tell him the contents of her aching heart.

"I'm sorry James, I -"

"Too soon?"

Lily nodded.

He exhaled loudly and licked his lips. "Well, you probably already know this, but I'm here for you. I always was. But now you know that. And I hope you can feel comfortable enough in the future to tell me."

He stood up, and extended his calloused hand. Lily took it and hoisted herself up.

This was too much to handle for one afternoon; all she wanted to do was sleep, or sit on the grass and stare into nothing. She felt very vulnerable, but with the small joy of knowing the many possibilities of being friends with James Potter, her former enemy. Now she would be there to witness his happy moments, his heavy fears, the most mundane and trivial aspects of his life, and she felt the weight of this truce pressing against her chest.

They quietly walked to the door, and James closed it behind them.

* * *

This was probably my FAVORITE chapter to write.

Review, pretty please?


	6. JLASP: Take Three

**Dsiclaimer: I own nothing.**

**Kindly R&R, please?**

**This is kind of a filler chapter for Chapter Six, which has a ton of action; but it deals with...you'll see. **

**:)**

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Chapter Five

"So we need books for our Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests, eh?" Sirius said.

Peter groaned.

"Yes," Alice said shortly.

Since Lily had run upstairs to talk to James, Alice had been getting up and sitting down in fifteen minute intervals, each time excusing herself to go get a drink, when in reality she could not make herself go upstairs.

Again, twenty minutes after she had last stood up, she was itching to move about; maybe if she thought hard enough and made the motions needed to move, her body would follow suit and lead her to her best friends.

Alice stood up quite abruptly, and Sirius looked at her from the corner of his eye.

"Might as well get another drink, Al," he muttered.

"Yeah, sure," she mumbled absently, and because she was not rude, she offered to bring him back a fizz drink. He merely stared at her dumbly until she hastily excused herself and went into the kitchen.

She pushed through the doors with unnecessary roughness, chiding herself for her equally unnecessary concern. But Lily had sounded angry when she stomped upstairs to talk to James – poor James, who had clearly expected Lily to have a rather unenthusiastic reaction to his badge.

She propped her elbows up on the marble countertop, her mind swimming deeply in thought.

She imagined how pleased Lily must be, to don the badge given to her – albeit indirectly – by Dumbledore, the greatest wizard of the age.

A smile tugged at her lips, because she could not help but feel the pride Lily was undoubtedly feeling. And to top it all off, muggle-born. Not that it mattered, she thought quickly. Just something that would help wipe the smug faces clean around the Slytherin table.

The smile was wiped away gently by her sigh. Her mother would be devastated. Severely disappointed by the absence of a Prefect badge on her uniform – it had hurt to look her in the face for endless days – it nevertheless did not lessen her faith that by some outside chance Alice could still be made Head Girl.

Her mum's thoughts were justified; after all, hadn't James been made Head Boy without being Prefect?

However, she was not James. No, not James with his – what was it? Eleven O. and ten Outstandings? She could not recall.

Lily had achieved an O in Transfiguration, while Alice had gotten an Exceeds Expectations. Otherwise, their performances on the Ordinary Wizarding Tests were nearly identical. That Transfiguration note would haunt her, for sure…

In anticipation for her badge, her mother had had a seamstress tailor Alice a new set of robes, with fabrics chosen by her mother. This was perhaps the biggest blow of all.

But Lily deserved it. More than she did.

This truth did not deter her envy.

Also nagging like a persistent mother: What if she had, in her lenience towards letting Lily go up to get James, unknowingly ushered her into a battle zone? James was nasty where his temper was concerned, and only Lily's' rivaled his.

She turned around sharply, and her brown hair whipped around, when she heard the door swing open. It was only Sirius wearing a smirk.

"Was it good?"

"Excuse me?' Alice said. She remembered her 'drink.' "Oh, it was…wet." Brilliant, she thought.

"You don't say!"

"Did you need anything?" Alice grumbled, scowling at nothing in particular.

"Mind coming back to the sitting room? We miss you. Well, mostly Peter, but don't tell him I said that," Sirius said.

Alice rolled her eyes and they went back to the sitting room. Peter looked anxious. Alice knew the sign.

"Peter, if you're hungry, go help yourself," she said amiably, pointing to the kitchen.

"I'll be right back," Peter breathed, scurrying into the kitchen.

She settled on the couch and Sirius sat on an out-of-place wooden chair. He leaned back on it slightly.

"Bet you five galleons James and Lily are in your room snogging…" Sirius said but he trailed off at the look Alice gave him.

"That's vile, Sirius. They're in my _room, _for Merlin's sake," Alice said coldly.

"Maybe you just hate the thought of them snogging, period," Sirius said noncommittally.

Something in the way his dark hair perfectly covered half his eye made Alice irrationally glare at him.

"Don't be ridiculous," Alice said icily.

Peter came into the sitting room with a sandwich in his hand, only to find Sirius and Alice glaring at each other where they had been sitting quietly minutes before. He took a big bite and said, "Wha' goin' on?"

"Nothing. Sirius as always, thinking he knows everything about anything," she said scathingly, looking away from Sirius' handsome face – Sirius, who could get anything he wanted with a lazy grin.

Sirius, whose playful grin slid off, turned to look at Peter, who stopped chewing. "Did I _do _anything?" he asked, indicating Alice with a dark glance.

Peter shrugged meekly and avoided Alice's piercing brown eyes.

She thought of Lily, who was most likely in an argument with James. She blamed this thought for provoking her to say, quite immaturely to Sirius, "Are you a coward? Can't you ask me yourself?"

Black rounded on the petite witch. "Alice, what is your bloody problem?" he snarled. Alice ignored him.

Sirius took his wand and tapped it against his calf, and dull red sparks flew out. Peter watched on with interest.

Alice watched on with faint interest as well, if only because it was something to look at. Sirius had nothing to do with this, she thought wearily; it wasn't fair to him. It wasn't his fault Lily and James were still upstairs, perhaps plotting their escape into their dream land full of love and butterflies and no other friends. She wondered when their passionate argument turned into a scandalous tryst in her mind.

That's it. No more late-night Scotch for her.

She rubbed her eyes with her hands tiredly.

"Sorry, Sirius. I don't know. It's just that every time Lily and James argue or make a scene, it's like the whole world revolves around them, and it gets tiring. It's hardly ever just Lily and just James." She looked at him apologetically.

Sirius eyed her suspiciously before shrugging. "Hey, that's who they are. I've lived with it for six years now. No need to get your knickers in a twist. You of all people should know this."

Alice sank into deeper remorse. She and Sirius normally got along very well, better than she got along with Peter or Remus. Mostly to divert Sirius' attention, she said, "I'll bet ten galleons that nothing happened."

Sirius raised an eyebrow and abandoned his wand. "Quite confident aren't you?" Sirius said lightly. "I trust James won't mess this up for me. James and Lily kissed, and they liked it." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a handful of coins.

"Where did you get all that money?" Peter said. His eyes followed Sirius' fingers. He counted ten galleons and pocketed the change.

"My Uncle Alphard, bless him," Sirius said.

"And you keep that much gold in your pockets?" Alice asked with disbelief. She was rather well-off, but she never carried more than a few pieces of gold and silver in her purse.

"Lucky I did, didn't I?" Sirius said tonelessly, still a little peeved at Alice.

"How come I don't hear it in your pocket, Padfoot?" Peter said.

"It's called magic, try it sometime," Sirius said offhandedly.

Peter was quiet for a moment. "I'll put in a galleon that Lily hexed Prongs," he squeaked, licking the margarine off his fingers. He hesitated. "Mate, can you put in one for me, I'll pay you back later."

"I know," Sirius said as he flipped in another gold coin. "Well?" he beckoned Alice.

She pulled out her wand that was wedged between the cushions on the sofa, and with a soft wave, ten galleons appeared on the table.

"Did you make them appear out of thin air?" Peter asked.

"That's impossible," Alice said curtly. "I summoned them."

She looked at her wand through half opened eyes. Suddenly very tired, she closed her eyes slowly, and hoped that when she opened them, James would be sitting next to her, with Lily sitting on the other sofa.

It hadn't been more than five measly seconds before she felt the couch twitch. She lifted her head and looked at Sirius, who had startled, his sharp features alert.

"What was that?" he asked.

"What was what?" Peter said. He looked at Sirius nervously.

"Didn't you feel it?" Sirius whispered. He glanced at Alice.

They both stood up with their wands out. Sirius moved surreptitiously in front of Alice's small body. Alice glared at Sirius' back.

When she heard the brief thud, she pointed her wand absently upstairs, and then her arm went limp. She rolled her eyes.

"That's coming from upstairs," Alice said in her normal tone. "That's just Barney. My house elf." She threw her wand on the sofa.

"Your house elf? You have an elf? Since when? How is it that I don't know this?" Sirius asked.

"He's very shy," Alice said, sitting down again with a resigned sigh.

"If that racket is what you call shy…" Peter said, sticking his own wand in his back pocket.

"He's a little touched in the head," Alice said matter-of-factly. "He's rebelling now. Messing up room number nine, I suspect."

"You have an elf?" Sirius said again, narrowing his eyes.

"He's not right – he's very angry now, because mum's not home. She can't get rid of him. He'll just kill himself." Alice looked utterly unconcerned with the fact.

"Does James know?"

"Of course he does."

Sirius clicked his tongue. "Does he know your elf is cracked? I can't see him staying quiet while you abuse it."

"We do not abuse him," Alice said with an edge to her voice. "I tried to help him without getting myself killed. Do _you_ like Kreacher?"

Sirius' face was clouded with ill-disguised loathing.

Alice felt the small hairs on her neck stand up.

"What about Kreacher? Nasty little thing he is," Alice heard James utter from behind her. She turned around just in time to see Lily whisper, "Who's Kreacher?" and James say, "Later."

Their juxtaposition puzzled Alice. They were rather calm, still pale - not splotchy-red in the face like Alice had envisioned them to be after a huge, impassioned argument – or a fervent snogging session that made her sick in the stomach to envision.

"Realized you had other friends, did you?" Sirius said, stepping aside to let James through.

James winked one hazel eye in reply.

"What's all that gold for?" Lily asked Alice interestedly. Lily gave her a small smile to show she would spill all the details of what had transpired upstairs.

"We made a bet to see if James had snogged you," Sirius said unblushingly.

"Was it that obvious?" James said, looking unblinkingly into Sirius' eyes. After a few seconds, Sirius grinned. He glanced at Lily, who was looking down at the floor with unveiled curiosity.

"I'm sorry?" Alice spluttered, frowning at Lily.

"More gold for me," Sirius said with fiendish glee, gathering up the gold in his arms to Alice's horror.

"Wow," was all Peter said.

Alice felt dizzy. Upon a second glance, she saw that Lily's lip was blood-red from having been chomped on. James who smirked at Alice before looking impressively at the gold Sirius was pocketing.

She looked back at Lily again…and wondered why she was playing along.

"Sirius, why don't you get a bag for that?" Lily said with a face of forced concern.

"Because I don't wear purses." However, he took out his wand and transfigured the vase into an unsightly, hairy bag.

"What a ghastly purse," Lily said. "Never wear that in my company."

"You're so sweet, Lily. I could kiss you, but it seems as though Prongs has beaten me to the punch," he said, flashing a sweet smile.

"You're both lying," Alice accused at once.

"You just want the gold!" Sirius said.

"You're telling _me, _that I need…gold," Alice repeated dryly, trying to let the absurdity of Sirius' statement sink in, but he would not hear of it.

"Well guess what, Prewett? You can take that pretty face of yours and – and, damn it," he cursed, looking at James' twitching lips. Suddenly, he burst into uncontrollable peals of laughter.

"James you bleeder, what'd you do that for? You cost me twenty one galleons," Sirius said grumpily, throwing the bag clumsily at Alice. He pouted.

Lily was smiling, somewhat awkwardly. James managed to choke out, in between roars of laughter, "Your – face – priceless- told – you – Lily..."

"Am I missing something?" Peter said for the second time that day.

"It's plain as day, Peter," Sirius said grouchily. "They've come to an agreement of some sorts and now have conspired against me."

"We figured it was better to become friends, seeing as we're both Heads now," Lily supplied, perching her hands on the top edge of the couch. Their badges gleamed brightly as if to emphasize her point.

"'We'?" James repeated, after his laughter had simmered down to a faint pink hue on his face. "Whose idea was it, Evans?"

Lily rolled her eyes. "Okay fine, it was James' idea and I cooperated."

"In more ways than one, you led us to believe," Sirius said.

"Take a joke, Black," Lily said with a shadow of a smile.

"So what, are you guys like best friends now?" Alice said jokingly.

"No," James said quietly, raising an eyebrow at her. Alice gave him a look.

"Lily we're going to have a talk later," her best friend said, careful to inject the necessary tone of implication that comes with a promise of gossip.

Lily glanced at her watch. "Actually, I'd love to – I'll tell you sometime later, I mean - it's getting pretty late, I should go back home."

"No!" Alice blurted. James stared at her.

"She's been barmy all day." Sirius explained.

Alice ignored this. "Why don't you sleep over? Please, Lily."

James took Alice's line - hook, line, and sinker, "Yeah, Lils, we can all go to Diagon Alley tomorrow. Sirius stays over anyway, and Peter – well there's a lot of food here," he said teasingly.

"Oh, I wouldn't want to intrude or anything – don't you and Alice usually go yourselves?" Lily said uncertainly.

Alice quickly weighed her options. Potential date or girl's day or –

"Come along, the more the merrier," Sirius said, implying that he would be coming as well.

Alice was not wholly disappointed, mostly because Sirius had voiced her thoughts.

But Lily looked at Alice's hopeful face.

"Your mum wouldn't mind?" Lily absentmindedly crossed her arms so that it covered the badge. Alice felt a quick burst of affection for her best friend's good heart.

"She loves you Lily," Alice said almost sadly, but she checked herself. She'd rather have Lily here and hope her mother accidentally took a peek at the badge than Aliceherself than have to explain to her mother herself that she had failed her again. There it was - her famed Gryffindor courage.

"Okay," Lily said happily. "I'll just need to ask my dad, he can be a bit overprotective. Just to be quicker, can I apparate here?"

"In the kitchen only – I reckon my dad made it that way so that he can go straight to food," Alice said, rolling her eyes.

* * *

Review, please?


	7. James and Lily: Take Three

**Disclaimer: I own nothing. :)**

**Hope you guys like this Chapter! Again I have to awknowledge my amazing beta; without her this Chapter would not have been what it is!**

**Read and review, please?**

* * *

Chapter Six

It was easier not to think about Lily when she wasn't around, James thought. His eyes lingered on the spot where she had disapparated.

"Hey James," Alice said, touching his forearm. "Want some chocolate?"

"Sure," he said smoothly, swiveling around on his chair to face her.

She went to her cupboard, opened the small door and grabbed a little, dark bag. She opened it and took out a few pieces of chocolate in green wrapping. The sweets flew around the room to each of the boys in turn as Alice waved her wand with a smile.

James caught it as it soared over his head. He unwrapped it and put it in his mouth.

Peter, in an uncharacteristic Peter-fashion, examined the wrapping before opening it.

"'_Vote… Cameron for Best… Chaser in the League,'" _he read.

James spat his chocolate on the countertop before him.

"Blimey, Prongs, there's a rubbish bin right next to you," Sirius said with mild revulsion. He made the half-chewed chocolate vanish with a short wave of his wand.

Alice was torn between a grimace and a grin.

"There's no way in hell you're making me eat those, Allie," James said disgustedly, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

"Why not?" Alice said, passing him a napkin. "It would have showed support for Cameron."

Ever since they had first met, Alice and James had never been able to see eye to eye about Quidditch; Alice always supported the Wasps, while James was unwavering in his support for Puddlemere United.

"What a load of dung!" James said. "You couldn't pay me to vote for that useless piece of shit over Skip Fredrick!"

"Oy, Prongs, here's a neutral one," Sirius said, handing him a chocolate inside harmless silver wrapping. James ripped it open and stuffed it in his mouth irritably.

"Are you crazy?" Alice said. "My Wasps have the best Chaser in the league! He has the most passes by _far_."

James shook his head furiously while chewing.

"That may be so, but he also has the most drops in nearly a decade," James retorted, his straight teeth stained with dark chocolate. "Give me a consistent Chaser over that disaster you're mouthing about." He closed his mouth and licked the chocolate off his pearly-whites.

"Puddlemere United is going to the dogs," Alice said shortly.

"Blimey, guys, it's just a game -" Peter began but shrunk under James' glare.

His dropped his voice dangerously. "Just a game?"

"Oy," Sirius said loudly, darting his eyes between the tense witch and wizard, who were both staring at a terrified Peter as if he had committed the most profane sin conceivable. "Aren't you starting to wonder where Lily" – _Crack! – _"Ah, there is my flower."

"I think dragon would be a more appropriate term," James said grumpily; he had winced when he heard the sound like a whiplash that announced Lily's arrival.

James looked at Lily, and the thick hair that was gently wrapped around her neck like a loose scarf, and thoughts of Quidditch were flushed away like the toilet his dad used to enter the Ministry.

Apparently she closes her eyes when she apparates, he noticed idly. As she opened her eyes, with those incredibly dark lashes of hers, he was reminded of a flower blooming to life. He shook this thought out of his head and resolved to stop reading his mum's _Witch Weekly _subscriptions…and soon.

"I can stay," Lily said tersely. She placed her bag on the counter-top and played with the green strap. "My dad and I had a bit of a row…" she said almost as an afterthought.

"Oh?" said Alice, still a little flustered over Quidditch. "Is everything all right?"

James prepared himself to listen intently. Then his mind wandered to the subject of sweets…a Cauldron Cake would make him happy – it always did…they should make a chocolate the color of her hair…that'd be kind of – _oof! _He doubled over but disguised it with a strong cough. Alice had incredibly sharp elbows.

Lily looked at Alice oddly and said, "He's just a bit protective, is all. I had to remind him I was seventeen…too many times, in fact." Her face reddened lightly with the memory. "He doesn't really – I mean he still feels like magic is a school-thing, you know? That after school ended it was – I don't bloody know…Muggle time or something. And so I told him I'm going to be a witch forever_._"

"Just keep your wand," Sirius said, noting the rising color in her cheeks, "in your pocket."

Lily laughed, but it was short-lived. She shook her head and looked around as if she'd never seen the kitchen before. "I dunno. So what were you lot doing before I came?"

"Quidditch," Peter said, swallowing the rest of the last Cauldron Cake.

"You don't play Quidditch, Alice," Lily said. "Pass me a sweet, Black."

"Oh, no. We were arguing about Puddlemere United and my Wasps," Alice said, glaring at James again.

"You're fighting a losing battle, my dear. Oy, Sirius, pass me a Cauldron Cake will you?" James said, holding out his hand.

"What am I, the candy man now? And I think you'll need both hands to carry Peter," Sirius said.

The short wizard averted his blue eyes.

"Pete! You know I love Cauldron Cakes!" James said.

Peter hid his dirty fingers behind his back and looked at the floor guiltily.

"You eat like a cow and don't gain anything," Lily said to James, trying to tease what looked like clothes out of her small bag.

"It's all Quidditch, baby." James said. Immediately he mentally face palmed. Was his mouth not in sync with the internal workings of his brain? Baby? _Baby?_ He ignored Sirius' foot that had lightly kicked him, and looked at Lily as if he had asked what the weather was like.

"You're on a broom," Lily said indifferently, standing up.

James exhaled. He very much wanted to argue about how difficult it was be in the air and maneuver a broomstick while handling a large ball to shoot precisely through the hoop with strategic aim – _and _that's assuming the Keeper is Stunned, but he couldn't catch her eye.

"I want to put my sleeping clothes in your room, Alice."

"Oh! Barney can do that, don't worry about it. Barney!" Alice called before Lily could protest.

Oh, Merlin – must she summon the damned elf? James waited in unsuppressed dread.

With a loud crack, Barney appeared. He had already begun bowing to each witch and wizard in attendance. When he raised himself to his full height, all but Alice and James were startled to see a dirty, blue eye-patch over his large left eye.

"Is Mistress here?" Barney asked hopefully with trembling lips. Alice shook her head.

James looked at the elf pityingly, and waited patiently for the outburst.

With a great shuddering gasp, Barney allowed two large tears to cascade down his face before swallowing heavily. He seemed greatly distressed by the absence of Alice's mother.

"Good evening Miss Allie, Mister James Potter. Barney wants to know what Miss Allie has called him for." He sounded deeply regretful of this.

"Could you just put Lily's bag up in my room, and then continue with whatever you were doing? Thanks, Barney," Alice said, waving her hand dismissively.

With Barney, James thought dryly, it was best to be swift and to the point.

Barney nodded sadly, his only visible eye bright red and swollen as Lily gingerly held out her bag for Barney to take. With a last, watery look at James and Alice, he disappeared, almost sucking the happiness out of the room with his depressing state. It was rather worse than a Dementor, which could be gotten rid of quickly with a Patronus.

Sirius blinked. "Am I the only bloke who thinks your elf fancies your mum?"

"It's a sick obsession," James answered.

"Er, what happened – I mean." Lily pointed at her own eye lamely.

"Alice's mum left for a week on business,'' James explained. "He went nutters."

"How come you never told me Prewett here had an elf?" Sirius asked, still looking at the spot where Barney had disappeared.

"Elves are a bit of a sore spot for you. Especially since your mum blasted you off the tapestry -"

"What?" Lily asked sharply.

James involuntarily grinned. One of many things she was none the wiser about…he would now be there to fill in all her blank spaces. He became solemn as soon as Sirius scowled.

Sirius' eyes darkened. "My dear old mum decided it was finally time to kick me out of the house." He smiled humorlessly. "The Potters were always my real family."

"So, yeah," James said awkwardly.

"That's horrible," Lily said. "What happened in your family?"

"And _that's _a long topic for another day," Alice said, walking towards the sitting room. "Let's all go to sleep, we have a long day tomorrow – Diagon Alley!" She clasped her hands together happily.

"Aw, c'mon Allie, it's still pretty early," James said. "Your mum isn't even home."

She grimaced oddly. "Do you want mum to come home and make us bathe Barney again?"

"Come on Padfoot, Wormtail, let's go upstairs," James said quickly. He brushed past Alice and said over his shoulder, "Good night, ladies."

Sirius and Peter murmured good night and followed James up stairs to their room.

"Is your arse on fire? Slow down," Sirius said.

"Here," James said, turning the knob and opening the door when they were near the end of the very long hall. The room had light gold walls unlike the crème-colored ones in Alice's room. There were four armchairs surrounding a small table on hardwood floor and four neatly made beds adjacent to the door.

"Your things should be in that closet already," James said indicating a large closet opposite the beds.

Sirius collapsed on his bed on the far left. "I'll never get over how bloody amazing this bed feels like. Hey, do you think I can bring over -"

"No," James said firmly. "Blimey Padfoot, this isn't even my house."

"Oh well. Do you mind lighting more candles?" Sirius asked. "I'm getting too much of a vibe and it's tickling me the wrong way."

"You have your wand, you do it. Hey guys, look at me," James said, stripping off his pants slowly. He threw it in a basket near the door with a hairy, extended leg. He was left standing in his black boxers and t-shirt. James wiggled his behind.

"You have no shame," Sirius commented.

"Don't judge me, I'm just getting comfortable! This _is _practically my second home, you know," James said, abruptly abandoning his silky voice. "I'm going to go nick some cookies."

"I'm coming," Sirius said, hopping off the bed, his eyes becoming alive with the promise of a small adventure.

"Stay put, Black," James said, to the noticeable surprise of his best friend.

"Food!" Sirius said loudly, as if it explained it all.

"Sorry, mate, I feel like I should go alone on this one," he said gravely, as if he were off to perform some heroic deed that was best done solo. "I'll bring you back some."

His best friend opened his mouth furiously and then closed it as it stretched instead into a sly grin, albeit a reluctant one.

"Are you by any chance expecting a certain redhead?"

James scowled, and shook his head. "I just want my damn cookies."

Something in his tone must have convinced Sirius, because he frowned.

Or so he had thought.

"If I'm not going then neither are you," Sirius said. "Why don't you turn this pillow into a pile of cookies?" He threw a pillow at James, which collided with his chest and fell on the floor with a low thud.

James stared at it. "I can't, I don't know how," he said.

"Rubbish!" Sirius said. "You're an Animagus" – James motioned for Sirius to lower his voice – "and you can't transfigure a bloody pillow?" he ended in a carrying whisper.

"Did you not get an O in Transfiguration?" James said. "Don't cause a catastrophe without me, I'll be right back."

As James' hand was poised to turn the door knob, Peter muttered, "So you and Evans?"

"We talked, we became friends," James said shortly. His finger twitched.

"Well," Peter said as he shifted uncomfortably. "So how do you feel about that?"

James opened the door and chewed his lip thoughtfully before saying uncertainly, "It's alright, I guess."

"Don't you still fancy her?" Peter said.

"Yeah, but - I'll make it work," James said awkwardly.

"Oh, that's good," Peter said slowly.

"Yeah…I'll be going now," James said quickly, closing the door behind him, feeling the heat rising in his neck. How could girls talk about emotions and relationships so casually - even in the loo! He shook his head. A bloody nightmare…

He had been so lost in his thoughts that he failed to realize, until he arrived at a staircase and almost fell to certain doom, that it was pitch-dark. He retreated hastily, knowing that those were the stairs to the basement, and not the ones to the kitchens, which were much farther down.

James absentmindedly touched his body trying to see if it had vanished along with the light. He extended his arms, groping the darkness, but he could not even see that far in front of him.

"_Lumos!" _he said. He held his wand out, and headed down the long hallway to the kitchen. Humming lightly to himself, he raised his wand to several portraits, some of whom where peacefully slumbering, their brows wrinkling at the sudden burst of light.

The faint glow from the wand only reached about a foot and a half in front of him before it dissolved softly into mystery. He always thought of darkness as mystery. Anything could be hidden in it.

No sooner had he thought this than James hurtled forward and fell flat on his face. His nose was crushed painfully against the incredibly polished floor. His wand had flown somewhere ahead of him, and his glasses – bloody hell, he thought, touching his circular lenses. Broken.

No glasses, no wand. His heart thumped hard against his chest as he swallowed the embarrassment of it all. Soon, he began to feel an odd sensation – panic. He had been in the house countless times, been in the darkness millions of times – but without his sight or his magic he felt naked, and that frightened him. Take away his arm too – he stopped this thought immediately. Better not tempt fate.

In the panic of the moment he shouted the first incantation that occurred to him:

"_Incendio!" _

Realizing what he had uttered, in no less than a split second, he rolled onto his back as the jet of fire grazed the right side of his face. "FUCK!" he shouted.

A high-pitched scream. James scrambled to his feet, not daring to touch his burnt face.

In the flare from the fire he spotted his wand under the portrait of Dippy the Dolt. He snatched it up and tapped his glasses with it. He put his them on hastily and held his wand out.

"James! The fire – behind – oh, step aside – _aguamenti!" _somebody whispered hoarsely. James was staring, transfixed, at the fire he had set on the floor and the water that was putting it out. He raised his wand to the heart-shaped face of Lily Evans. There was no more fire. With a weary wave of her wand, the giant puddle vanished.

James lit his wand again.

She turned to look at James with slightly wild eyes. "You gave me the biggest bloody fright of my life – and then for some reason you started a bloody fire and – and then I heard someone curse," she panted.

"I fell," James said lamely.

"I can tell," Lily said stiffly. "Your nose." She lit her wand and held it up to his face.

James sighed, said _'Nox' _to his own wand, and then pointed it at his nose. Lily slapped his wand arm away.

"You're going to singe your nose along with your face. No – don't touch it, for Merlin's sake," Lily said bossily. "I'll do it."

After a few moments, James' face was smooth as it was before, and his nose didn't feel remotely damaged or dislocated.

"Thanks," he muttered, rubbing his nose just for something to do.

"How did you fall anyway?" Lily asked. "This floor has nothing on it."

James felt the heat creep to his face. "You'll be surprised at how unpredictable smooth planes are."

"In any case," Lily sighed, yawning. She didn't finish her sentence.

"What are you doing here? I thought Alice's room was...not here."

She waved her hand aimlessly before saying, "Well I was going down to the kitchens" –James held his breath – "for something to eat. You?" she said quite brusquely.

"Funnily enough, my sweet tooth was beginning to ache as well..." This was the first time he noticed Lily not in her regular clothes. Rather, she was clad in very long, loose pants and a tank-top. She looked exquisite.

"Let's go then," Lily said. "I want some sugar."

"W-what?" James spluttered, heart thumping madly. "Oh! Cookies, let's go then," he said quickly, racing ahead of her so that she didn't notice that she could have fried an egg on his face.

"Slow down, Potter, my legs are rather short you know."

James would have gladly begged to differ if she didn't have her wand twirling between her fingers.

Once they arrived at the kitchen, Lily went straight for the cupboards adjacent to the door, while James lit every candle in sight. He spent about a minute extinguishing and igniting one candle in particular, fretting that extinguishing the candle would make the room too romantic, whereas lighting the candle would make it seem as though he would be too uncomfortable being in a room that suggested it had the potential to be romantic.

He settled on lighting it, and he saw Lily climbing onto a chair and reaching up to open a cupboard.

"Isn't Charms supposed to be a specialty of yours? Remember the Summoning Charm?" James teased.

"I'm muggle-born, this is how I used to get everything I wanted," Lily said with a reluctant smile.

As she groped inside the cabinet for the sweets, James looked at her, and noticed that her shirt was slowly riding up. Lily wouldn't care that they were now friends, James thought. She would curse his eyes out in a second if she found him ogling. He conjured two large napkins on the countertop.

"Oh! Pumpkin cookies, and sugar, and – oh!" Lily said, her head inside the cabinet, as she slipped and caught her footing.

James wondered why Alice couldn't keep the cookies where she kept her chocolates.

Lily's head emerged from the cupboard, her face wearing a triumphant grin, and her hand followed holding a bag of cookies.

She threw it at James, who opened it and placed some on each of their napkins.

"Thanks, James," Lily said as she settled into her seat.

James just smiled at her, because too many things were running through his head as it was. Her determination to get the cookies, her muggle ways, and just the fact that she wasn't screaming bloody murder at him made it quite difficult to wipe the grin off his face.

He took a bite of a pumpkin cookie and glanced at Lily.

"I wouldn't have done this if Alice hadn't told me to help myself," Lily said defensively in between bites.

James smirked. "Of course you wouldn't have done this without permission."

Lily raised her eyebrows at him slowly; she took another cookie.

"It's called manners, James," she said with a sweet smile. "We need drinks." She made to get up, but James held up a hand and transfigured two cookies into tall glasses of milk.

"It's called magic, Lily," he retorted.

They both took long sips of milk.

Maybe it was the sugar, or the fear that their conversation had hit a plateau, but James said, "What did you get on your O.?" An unoriginal, standard _Guide to Magical __Conversations__ 101_ question, but he was really curious.

Lily said, "All Outstanding except Transfiguration. I got an Exceeds Expectations."

James put a handful of cookies in a small bag for Sirius and Peter.

"That's great."

"Yeah, mum and dad were pleased," Lily said, chewing softly on her last cookie. James ran a hand through his hair and stared at his cookie. If he ate that last cookie, there would be no more barriers – it would just be him and her. They wouldn't be able to keep themselves busy with the cookies…they would be forced to focus on each other.

He frowned. If a bloody cookie was an obstacle, then he was a pansy, for sure. He glared at the circular cookie and stuffed it quite sloppily in his mouth.

"I wasn't going to take your cookie, Potter," Lily said, eying him funnily.

"Oh," was all he said.

After Lily had cleared the countertop, they both sat, as he had predicted, very awkwardly, in the aftermath of the mid sugar high, with James wondering where to go next. This would be a great time, he thought, to ask her about her family, her dreams, her ambitions, what color she likes best, where she squeezes the toothpaste tube...

"I like the color yellow," James blurted.

Rather than look at him oddly, which James was thoroughly expecting, something stirred behind her green eyes.

With a start, he played with the idea of asking Lily about what happened with Cory. Because at the moment, she didn't seem completely, well, _there_…more like – he couldn't have explained it – hastily put together.

Lily looked at him, as if debating with herself. "He said I scared him," she finally said in a low voice.

James blinked.

"Like, I was too much," Lily said in that same hollow voice. "I gave him everything, and he finally...he thought he could put it in a box and hand it back to me."

James fidgeted in his seat slightly. Even though from what he could see her eyes were quite dry, she rubbed an eye lightly.

"I'm sorry, I already told Alice, it's not like I need...sorry," said Lily regretfully. James reached across the counter top and touched her hand. Lily looked at his hand like it was an acromantula and James withdrew it.

"What do you mean, too much?" James asked tentatively.

Lily hesitated. "I don't even know. Maybe I slathered it on too thick. Maybe I loved him too much," Lily said vaguely.

James ignored the acid bubbling in his stomach at what she had said. He could have bet his entire Gringotts vault that Cory hadn't realized that if had he said jump, Lily would have leaped, and if he had said push, Lily would have shoved.

"I should go upstairs," Lily said suddenly.

The messy-haired wizard shook his head. "Sit down," he said firmly.

Lily looked slightly taken aback; however, she sat back down.

Cory bit off more than he could chew with Lily. It wasn't her fault; after all, Cory couldn't handle her burns. But there was hardly any fire left in her to burn. James was her friend...he was going to help her in the very best way he knew how.

"Get over it," James said, looking her in the eye. She tensed. James braced himself.

"Sorry?" she said.

"I understand he was the first bloke you loved and all that, but honestly. He didn't _die..._I mean do you still want him?" he said lazily.

Lily looked highly affronted. "It's hard to get over your first love, James."

James glared at her but didn't answer.

"It's been two bloody months, that's not enough time -"

"Shit, Lily, how could you like a bloke who couldn't handle you? You're better off broken up," James shot back, noting the red that extended its hands across the planes of Lily's face.

Lily stood up, palms face down on the counterop. "Where the hell do you come off so high and mighty?"

"It's not that tough, Lily," James said coolly. "_Don't _tell me I don't know what rejection feels like -"

"_Rejection?_"Lily screeched, her nostrils flared. "You think this is about rejection? This is about _love, _I _love _Cory."

So she still liked Lancaster then.

His heart swelled with the familiar feeling of having her eyes shoot daggers at him, and he mentally prepared himself for more attacks, if only it meant that the old Lily would come back.

"I see nothing scary about you at all anymore," James said swiftly, "if this is how you react after, _again, _you were disappointed by a guy you thought you loved. Merlin, you're getting as predictable as the Chudley Cannons. Snape -"

"Don't you dare talk to me about Snape," Lily hissed, her hair coming out of her hair tie.

"Honestly, Lily, I reckon -"

"No, you don't reckon, I'm done talking about this to you," Lily said, her lips moving so fast James was surprised she could get any words out. "This is pathetic, James, this is why I didn't want to tell you. You fancy me and you're looking for any excuse to make Cory seem like a weakling. Some bloody friend you are..."

And on she went. James took each of her blows, each as swift and strong as the previous, until he couldn't prevent the words from rising to his lips.

"We've had enough of your moping around, Lily. Just remember you had a life outside of Cory, will you?"

Lily was so shocked she opened and closed her mouth several times before settling on a venomous glare.

She stomped off, slamming the door so hard he feared it would fly off its hinges.

James watched her leave, very pleased. Then, as that feeling drained away, he slammed his fist on the marble counter top; he nursed it, rubbing it absently until he felt himself becoming drowsy, until he forgot he had to return sweets to his best friends and laid his cheek against the cool surface...already sleeping...

* * *

Lily had promised her that once she had finished her tale, she would go straight to sleep and not bother her with it again.

Alice stared at Lily's sleeping form, at an utter lost for words. Why, _why _had James acted like such a prat? Her best friend's delicate heart – he just took it and crumbled it in his fist.

What was he _thinking, _throwing caution to the wind like that?

She took her braided hair in her hands, which Lily had done for her before she had left to get a snack, and stroked it.

Alice looked at her window, remembered back when James had stopped by a mere two weeks after school had ended, and wondered again..._what _he was thinking...

Then again, Lily had been red-faced and spitting venom when she had burst into the room, so her version of what had transpired in the kitchen might be a little bit biased – but regardless...why bring up Cory at all, especially when he knew nothing?

Lily shuddered and then stayed still. Alice bit her lip and decided not to wipe the tears off her face again, instead leaving a tissue near her hands.

She felt helpless. James had given a bit of firewhiskey to an alcoholic – she had been doing just fine! And now it was back to square one

But when she glanced again at the mass of blankets that was Lily she felt a sudden, fierce loyalty towards her friend, and deep anger at the person who had hurt her.

Without a second thought, she opened the door quietly and sneaked out, lighting her wand. She darted towards the boys' room, and when she arrived, she banged on the door, surprised at her own aggressiveness, but knocking harder all the same.

The door creaked open, and Sirius Black stood before her, looking ready to strangle something. He rubbed his eyes tiredly and blinked a couple of times.

"Prewett?" He stared at her; she barely noticed he had no shirt on. "This better be pleasant."

"Give me James."

Sirius yawned.

"Poor bloke is sleeping. I found him downstairs - his hand is banged up. I reckon Evans tried to do him in." He stepped aside, so when Alice stepped closer and illuminated his silhouette, she saw the face of a young boy who was trying hard to fight sleep but was finding it very difficult. She felt a surge of pity.

It could wait.

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	8. Diagon Alley: Take One

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or anything relating to it. **

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Chapter Seven

Somebody was poking him, very hard. The trail of pokes had progressed from his temple, down to his nose, jaw, neck, shoulders – all the way down to his backside.

James lifted a hand and faintly tried to swat the person away. Despite his efforts, they were now jabbing at his thigh, like someone trying to determine whether he was alive or not.

He groaned.

"James," hissed the voice he recognized as Sirius'. He felt his best friend's humid breath dampening his ear, and James flipped over onto his back and threw a pillow in Sirius' general direction. Judging by its relatively quick trip to the floor, the pillow hadn't made contact.

"Fuck off, Sirius." James grabbed another pillow and placed it over his face.

"I reckon you should exercise some damage control."

"What?" asked James, his voice muffled by the pillow. He felt it being gently lifted away, and his face was suddenly cool. "Give me my pillow back," James mumbled. When Sirius made no such move, James opened one eye, then both. He squinted, trying to ease some light into his eyes. Then he propped himself up on one elbow tiredly, his drooping eyelids allowing only a glimpse of his hazel eyes.

"You look like shit," Sirius said cheerfully.

"Mm, yeah," James yawned. He blinked hard, twice, focusing on Sirius. "You interrupted the most _bizarre _dream ever."

"Did it include Lily and cookies?"

James motioned for his glasses. After he put them on, he said, avoiding Sirius' eyes, "Do I talk in my sleep?"

Sirius conjured a chair and sat down stiffly, with the air of being the bearer of bad news.

"I used a Hover Charm to get you up here," Sirius said, ignoring the question.

James frowned so that his eyebrows nearly touched the top rim of his glasses.

"That part wasn't in my dream," said James. "No, in the dream, I said some really stupid things to Lily." He forced himself to chuckle. "I'll tell you, mate, if she just heard some of the things I – I..." The sentence teetered off the edge of James' open mouth as he looked at Sirius' face, silently begging him to say stop, that none of that ever happened.

Sirius nodded. James continued to gape at him. He clasped James' shoulder hard; the latter's elbow slid from under him.

Realizing that his row with Lily last night had been quite real, James tried to amend his mistake. "Wait," he backtracked hastily, "That part was real. I actually _meant _to say that stuff to her."

Sirius looked bemused as he said, "Well, I don't know the whole story but I overheard Alice talking -"

"Oh, right, you were eavesdropping, of course."

"- to Lily, and she is upset. What'd you say to her? And you started a fire without me?" Sirius said.

"Never mind that," James said dismissively.

Sirius raised an eyebrow but didn't comment on it. "We're going to Diagon Alley today, mate. We won't look very responsible to Alice's mum if one of us gets murdered by the other. The fuck happened, Prongs?" Sirius leaned forward on his chair.

"Her mum's not coming until after we do our shopping," James replied, trying to throw his friend off track.

The door clicked open, and James craned his neck to see who his visitor was. Alice marched over to the side of James' bed.

"I'll tell you what happened," she said, hands on her hips. "James screwed up with Lily, again. Honestly James, I don't know how you expect her to take you seriously. How can you talk to her like that?"

"Like what?" Sirius asked, still clueless.

Alice ignored him. "I want to know what happened. What's your story? I'm listening, and this better be good."

James' eyes flickered to the door.

"She's eating breakfast," Alice said coolly. "Budge over."

James scooted over and she sat on the edge of the bed with Sirius right next to her on his chair, looking both utterly confused at her words and mildly uncomfortable.

Alice looked at Sirius pointedly.

"I'm not leaving, I want to know what happened," Sirius said firmly, but Alice's attention was on James once more.

"She loathes you right now," she said.

"It won't matter if she's happy –"

"You're so noble," Alice said sarcastically. "That is utter rubbish."

"I knew it would piss her off if I told her those things."

"You deliberately chose those words to upset her?"

James scowled. "Listen, when you say it like that it makes me sound like an arse -"

"You _were_ an arse!" Alice said loudly, and her anger was five times worse, for she was now five times closer to his face. Each emotion on her face was painfully clear – the anger in the deep lines of her frown, the exasperation in her flared nostrils. She breathed heavily through her nose as if to contain herself. "You're my best friend, James, but so is she. And I couldn't for the life of me try to defend you yesterday – not when she was crying half the night!"

James tried to raise his blanket to cover himself but only succeeding in tugging Alice closer.

"Honestly, anything sets her off these days," Sirius said in a low voice.

Alice looked at him sharply.

"But I didn't piss her off to…to piss her off!" said James rather lamely. "You saw how she was after Cory broke up with her, she was a mess!"

"_So_?"

"Someone had to help her!"

"_Help her? _A day, James, _one _day after she gave you her trust, you just threw it back at her – and you call that trying to _help _her? Some friend you are –"

"I'm her friend just as much as you are," James said, refusing to give in. "I was helping her to snap out of it."

"No, James, you're not," Alice said, and he sensed a hint of sadness in her tone. "You're not as much of a friend to her as I am. I've been her best friend since first year. You know nothing about her – don't look at me like that; you know it is true – and you can't suddenly just go solving people like that."

"I wasn't trying to solve her – she would be better off without that idiot anyway," James retorted hotly. "Anyone could see that."

"Really?" Alice said coldly. "What are you basing this on? Maybe a sentence or two she said about Cory that you think justifies their entire relationship?"

James glanced at Sirius who was leaning back on his chair, nodding right back at him supportively.

"You know it too," James persisted, drawing strength from Sirius' encouragement.

"Do you think she's wonder woman, James? For Merlin's sake. She's human, she's allowed to be weak – just because she's not a fire breathing dragon right now, you have to do something about it? It's not your place. All you had to do was listen and be her friend. Your opinion," Alice said more loudly when James glared at her, "was not wanted."

Sirius, who seemed to have finally understood some of what was going on, stood up triumphantly. Alice looked at him through narrowed eyes, as if daring him to interfere.

"I think," Sirius slowly, not looking at James, "you rushed in making your potion and didn't let it simmer."

Silence ensued.

"In a loony way, that made sense," Alice said.

Sirius looked highly pleased with himself; he gave the scowling James a small smile as if to say "Sorry to break it to you, mate."

"If you really want to help her, you've got to take baby steps with her," Alice implored. "She's furious at you, and I don't blame her for it. I know you fancied her, but please James, just try not to patch her up too quickly. Ease her into it."

James crossed his arms and the blanket wrinkled against his chest. "I had the best intentions."

"But your way was so very, very wrong," Alice said.

"Thus, damage control," Sirius said. "Now that I've put my two cents in, I'm going to go eat breakfast, mates."

When the door closed silently behind Sirius, James looked at Alice challengingly.

"Well, I'm not going to _make_ you apologize," Alice said firmly.

"I wasn't going to, I didn't do anything wrong. She'll thank me later." Alice smacked his leg.

"For somebody supposedly intelligent you're incredibly thickheaded," Alice said, shaking her head. "Wasn't it your idea to become friends in the first place? Honestly, I'm just glad she isn't here to witness your immaturity."

"That's awfully sweet of you," James said with a big smile. Alice reluctantly returned it.

"Ah, there's the ticket, Allie."

"I mean, you can be immature around me," Alice said absently. James beamed. "I already know who you are…you should just…delay this side of you…she already knows what a prat you can be, but, blah, I'm mumbling about nothing," Alice ended, a blush hiding under her cheeks.

"You worry too much. Don't worry about me and Evans. It's meant to be. We'll happen, as soon as she gets over Cory."

Alice looked at him as though he had dealt her a personal blow. "So you just wanted her to move on from Cory to get with you quicker?" she asked.

James eyed her as if her mental stability was in question. "Well, I want her be happy…I won't lie, I obviously would be thrilled if she fancied me, but honestly I wasn't thinking about that at all when I was talking to her." This much was true. It had barely occurred to him that the sooner Lily got over Lancaster the sooner she would fancy him…well, after he was forgiven…wow, he really made his chances look pretty grim at the moment…

"Oh, yeah, sure."

"But the sooner she gets over Cory, well, no one gets hurt that way, you see?" James said. Alice didn't answer but shrugged noncommittally.

"I'm going to change. See you in a few," James said, practically ushering her out with his words.

"Alright. I'll lay out your breakfast for you?"

James had stood up, and was now looking for clothes. "Thanks, Al," he said distractedly as he examined the condition of a pair of jeans he found under the bed. When he looked up, she was already gone, as he had hoped.

He slipped on his shoes after he had put on the jeans and his brown shirt before he made the long trip downstairs.

When he arrived at the door to the kitchen he hesitated, thinking about what the appropriate reaction would be if he were to see Lily. Should he smile apologetically at her, bite his lip with remorse, or look at her with steely eyes to tell her he did what he had to do for her own good?

He opened the door. He quickly scanned the room – only Peter, Sirius, and Alice were seated around the table. He felt an odd mixture of relief and disappointment.

"Thanks for the snacks, Prongs," Peter said through a mouthful of pumpkin cookie.

"No problem," James said airily, pulling up a chair to sit at the kitchen table. He sat there, not knowing what to do, and found that he didn't feel hungry in the least. However, he had to eat something, so he muttered, "Toast," to his plate and it appeared. He picked up the toast and went to the sitting room without another look at his perplexed friends.

He came to a halt as if an invisible force-field had been conjured in his path.

Lily was there with Barney, who was as sorrowful looking as ever. He would be put out of his misery once Alice's mum came back in the late afternoon.

James dared not take another bite of his almost burnt bread.

All he saw was the back of Lily's head, and Barney sitting across from her. He held his index finger to his lips to Barney, whose watery eyes travelled back to Lily. He did not know what made him reluctant to announce his presence to Lily, but he reckoned it was because he could not move his mouth or feet.

"She'll be back," he heard Lily say to Barney comfortingly.

"Barney c-can't wait for Mrs. Prewett to come back, Miss Lily. He can't," he sobbed into his small hands.

"Why can't you wait?"

But Barney was sobbing too much to say much except, "Want."

"How about Mr. Prewett?" Lily suggested softly.

Barney looked up at her, tears streaming from one melancholy red eye. "Barney misses Mrs. Prewett," he slurred pitifully, hugging his knees to his shaking body.

"Does Mr. Prewett treat you nicely?"

The elf glared at her with sudden indignation. "Miss Lily, I is always treated well in this house!"

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you," Lily said feebly. "How about this – can you get me a blank parchment?"

James knew she could conjure one in her sleep, but she only wanted to give Barney something to do. He smiled.

Barney snapped his finger and a lone parchment slowly floated into Lily's lap. His lip was still trembling terribly.

James saw her pull out her wand and point it at the parchment.

"Welcome back…Mrs. Prewett…signed…Barney!" Lily said carefully, punctuating each word with a sharp jab at the paper.

He could imagine her smiling in satisfaction as she handed the parchment to Barney, saying, "There's a little card you can give Mrs. Prewett when she returns." The elf took it, squealed in delight and jumped up and down, holding it to his chest tightly.

"Barney is so grateful! Miss Lily is so great, so generous, and so kind!" Barney said looking at the parchment with uncontained happiness.

Lily got up and stood next to Barney, so that she was a fraction from noticing James. He could see her perfectly now.

She patted Barney on the head a split second before the latter disappeared. She looked up with a smile so radiant James grinned back, marveling at how pretty she was.

Her own slid off her face at the sight of him. James felt the first, icy pang of remorse at knowing he was responsible for her frown and her roughness when she elbowed past him to get back into the kitchen.

He could not make himself smile after that, even remembering how happy she had made Barney.

Did he really want Lily to be unhappy because of those stupid things he had said? He kept telling himself it would be worth it when Lily was back to her fire-spitting form; but had he himself, in his selfish agenda, taken away some of her gusto as well?

If he could see her smiling like that again – he would give anything for that. And the best part was, she had smiled like that because she had helped someone, she had made someone feel happy. Right after she spent a night being broken down by a prat who thought he had her best interests in mind when really, he was being a troll.

He felt like throwing up.

Merlin, why did everything have to be so complicated with her?

He had to apologize, that much he knew now. Maybe there would come a day when James would learn to brave her scorn until she had none left, but until then he remained much too selfish. He craved her forgiveness; he wanted it _now_.

The door opened.

"Oy, Prongs, get ready," Peter said as he walked into the sitting room and stood in front of the roaring fireplace.

Internal monologue interrupted, James patted his pockets to make sure he had his gold and his letter.

Sirius and the two girls walked in as well, Lily standing very close to Alice, looking pale but determined.

James carefully sidestepped Sirius, who looked at him oddly, and addressed Lily.

"Listen, Lily," he said quietly.

"I'll go first," Lily said loudly, moving forward and grabbing a handful of Floo Powder. "The Leaky Cauldron!"

And she was gone.

"I knew you would break," Alice said, with a satisfied smile.

In another moment, Sirius was also gone.

Alice grabbed some Floo Powder and threw it in the fire. It turned a bright emerald green. James felt mocked.

"You're going to have to try harder than that, James. The Leaky Cauldron!"

And then she was gone as well, followed by Peter.

James took much more powder than was necessary and threw it in the fire. He stepped in, feeling very toasty, and bellowed, "The Leaky Cauldron!"

Feeling slightly dizzy, he climbed out of the blackened fireplace of the Leaky Cauldron and onto the grimy floor. He looked about the crowded pub and saw only Alice, looking sheepish. "Lily led the way," she said apologetically.

"Let's get going then," James said a little more harshly than he had intended.

James walked briskly to the courtyard, where he took out his wand and tapped the brick wall: three up, and two across. The archway revealed itself as it opened, and James didn't wait for it to completely appear before he stepped through with Alice following behind him.

"They said they'd be at Flourish and Blotts," Alice said.

"Right, our books," James mumbled, but when he glanced to his side Alice was no longer there. For once, he found himself having to catch up with her as she skipped off ahead of him through the crowd.

"Sorry, excuse me," James said as he shouldered past some small and excited wizards and witches and their parents. "Uh, Alice?" He caught sight of her tied brown hair that was like a horse's tail.

The bustling shoppers nearly made him crash into the window of the bookstore. Alice waited for a large gang of wizards to pass by before opening the door. The bell above them jingled to signal their entrance and they stepped in.

James felt being inside the store was a bit dull compared to the haste and noise of the streets behind the closed door. Although there were certainly enough people to ensure a few minutes in line to pay for their things, there was a more orderly crowd here.

"I suppose we should look for our Advanced Transfiguration book," Alice said, looking at James.

"That'll be on the bottom shelf of section seven," said a voice from behind them. They turned to see that the speaker was a man in the Flourish and Blotts uniform who was now smiling broadly at them. Thanking him abruptly, James turned sharply on his heel and proceeded to walk down to the identified section of the bookstore with Alice at his side.

He absentmindedly kept an eye on Lily, who was about four shelves ahead of the Transfiguration section, idly looking for her Advanced Charms book.

"Uh, James, you passed it," Alice said suddenly from somewhere behind him.

James looked back and realized he had been distracted by Lily and had walked on ahead, leaving Alice behind. He saw her give him a wry smile before stooping down to scan the shelf for the dark purple binding.

"I meant to do that. You're a sharp one, you are," James said as he retreated with a big smile. Allie smirked.

"I never really got a chance to ask," James whispered, running his finger along the spines of a row of books, "about Head Girl…"

In their fifth year, he had held Alice when her mother had been so disappointed that she hadn't been made Prefect. He kept his eyes down so as to not witness anything Alice wouldn't want him to see.

"Oh! Here they are," Alice said quietly, taking out two new thick books. "And I'm fine, really. I mean, mum will probably disown me, but I mean, I didn't really expect the badge – I knew I was a good student, and I _did _hope but…what do _you_ think?

She was looking at him intently.

"I think…I think Dumbledore knew what he was doing." He looked at Alice quickly; she seemed surprised and a little hurt by his answer, but he ploughed on, "Lily's a brilliant student, Al. She really worked hard for that badge and she deserved to have it."

Alice nodded stonily. James nestled his book under the crook of his shoulder and he gripped her arm comfortingly. "Your mum won't disown you."

"Yeah, well…I guess you should go find your Arithmancy book," Alice said tightly, and James scowled at her abrupt dismissal.

"Do you really want me to?" he blurted without thinking.

Her brows met in the middle and she moved away from him. "You should find it – I'll go see if I can find…this Healer book I've been meaning to look for."

James stepped close to her. "Allie, you know I think you would have made a great Head Girl, but, you know. I'm sure your mum will understand."

He saw her eyes follow the titles of the books on Defense Against the Dark Arts.

"Do you need help?"

She paused.

"No."

"The Healer books are near the Care of Magical Creatures brochures," James said quietly. He took a step back and accidentally backed into something very sturdy. He turned around to see a tall, familiar-looking boy of about his own age scowling at him, and muttered, "Sorry, mate."

It only took him a few minutes to snatch up the nearest Arithmancy book a few aisles ahead, and even less to decide to go back and talk to Alice. The last thing he needed was to be on fragile terms with his best friend. When he caught her eye again, she turned her back on him. He sighed and accidentally caught Lily's eye; it startled him, as her eyes always did when caught unexpectedly. She, too, turned her back on him.

In a span of five seconds, he'd had the most rejections in a day by two different girls, ever.

He sank down to the floor and extended his legs, not caring that he was on the dusty floor of the most popular bookshop in Diagon Alley.

"Off the floor, sir!" a small, wheezy voice beckoned. James looked up without interest.

"Oh, Mr. Potter, sir, I didn't – are you ill?" the wizard said, changing tack quickly when he saw who he was speaking to. He tugged at his collar.

"Does it look like I'm ill?" James snapped. He paused. "Sorry, I lost my, er, wand."

The wizard looked at the wand poking out from James' pocket and he pursed his lips.

"Your father was Head Auror, boy, and you insist upon keeping your wand in your pocket?" he said, his tone suddenly crisp again.

"Oh, you know," James said absently, only half-listening. "Stupid kids, don't know nothing…"

"You'd best be getting up, boy," he said, walking off.

James shrugged.

He was suddenly aware of someone murmuring behind him, but he tried to ignore it. Then, he heard giggling. With a startling thought, he jumped up, hitting his head on a particularly large copy of _Perfect Potions. _He slid back down, nursing his head.

He recognized those high pitched giggles anywhere.

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	9. Diagon Alley: Take Two

**Disclaimer: I own nothing :)**

**So I decided to post up Chapter 8 as well, because I'm in a pretty good mood. Therefore, more reviews, hopefully? :)**

**One can only hope. **

**Hope you enjoy!**

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Chapter Eight 

He began debating whether it was worth it to cast a Disillusion Charm on himself or just run off, get Alice and fly out. Lauren Riley, Cassie Stern, and Rachel Wood…he shuddered just thinking about their tinkling laughter. He got his wand out, ready to Obliterate the mind of any Giggler who caught sight of him…they tended to work in secret operations…if he was spotted by one they would all surely congregate and plan to take him away to Merlin knows where…

He crawled quickly out of the aisle like a cat that'd been burned in the arse by a blazing poker.

They had almost taken his life last year, tampering with his broom, a clever (loosely-speaking) scheme meant to have him suffer a heroic fall into the stands while trying to catch the Snitch; of course, they had never bothered to find out that he was indeed a Chaser and not a Seeker…

And in fifth year, while the devils were all fourth years…they had slipped him a love potion…so powerful he fell for the Giant Squid. What a task it had been, dueling both Remus and Sirius together in order to prevent them from his goal of swimming to the bottom of the Lake…he had been beaten, luckily, and taken to Slughorn.

Yes, he must exercise the utmost caution in dealing with these girls.

He stood up slowly and deliberately, first staying on his knees (still alert for any sightings of blond hair) and then straightening his back.

He held his wand out, and when a wizard in the aisle looked up at him from his book, quite frightened, James used it to scratch his back nonchalantly.

"James Potter?" said a voice he recognized.

He was utterly stunned to hear his name being spoken by Lily Evans like it was fragile and to be treated with caution.

He had a strong sense of foreboding…

Ducking behind the nearest stack of books and hiding his face, he heard Lily distinctly say, "Oh, he's over there, by those books." She dropped her voice as if she were telling them a secret, but the whisper was still loud enough to carry. "I heard he's interested in Love Potions, by the way." With a giggle worthy of Rachel Wood or Lauren Riley, she walked away, while the blonds made a beeline straight for him.

He barely had time to curse Evans before Rachel, Cassie, and Lauren sauntered up to him, rosy cheeks and all.

"Hey, James," they said in unison.

"Hello," James said dully. Not for the first time, James tried to use his best mate as bait: "Sirius Black is not here, so if you please…"

"Oh, no!" Lauren said with a high pitched giggle that made James grimace.

"Did you hear him?" she asked Cassie with large eyes. "As if we fancy Sirius Black!"

They all giggled.

"I suppose Sirius is rather good looking though, don't you think so?" Rachel asked Lauren.

"He is better looking than James, but James plays Quidditch!" Cassie said excitedly.

"I wouldn't say he's better looking, just _different _looking – although, Sirius is better in a more classical way," Lauren said.

Meanwhile, James was slamming his head repeatedly against the wall. I suppose this is Lily's revenge for yesterday night, he thought miserably.

"Um, ladies, I've really got to go – I'm meeting someone," James said once he was confident he had suffered enough head wounds to forget the previous two minutes.

"You don't really want to go, don't you?" Lauren cooed, stepping closer. James moved back.

"I bet you're meeting that Alice girl!" Cassie accused.

"Is that that mousy girl he always hangs around with?" Rachel said.

"Alice isn't mousy," James snapped, defending his friend. "She's actually quite pretty, if you ask me."

As soon as the words left his mouth, he wanted to return them to his mind. The three girls focused their attention on him simultaneously, all of them wearing almost identical, fascinated expressions.

"Did you say you think she's pretty?" Lauren quipped.

"I thought you were crazy about Lily!" Cassie said breathlessly. "Everyone has always said so, it's the best gossip around!"

"Girls, maybe he's _over _Lily! Maybe he's starting to prefer Elise–" Rachel exclaimed excitedly, but she was interrupted by Cassie.

"Rachel, her name is _Alice_!" she said hotly, as if Rachel had personally injured her. James couldn't eliminate the possibility that that _was _how she had received Rachel's incomplete knowledge of the piece of gossip. "_Alice_. How incredibly stupid does one have to be–"

"Cassie!" James intervened desperately. "Rachel, Lauren! Stop arguing! And I would really appreciate it if you wouldn't discuss my love-interests while I'm standing _right here_, thanks."

It seemed he was only capable of saying things that would make the situation worse. At his comment, they turned into a united force once more. "How adorable!" Rachel chirped, clapping her hands when she saw James redden. "He's embarrassed to talk about how much he fancies Elise –"

Cassie grew red and turned to Rachel furiously. "_Alice_!" she repeated shrilly. "You must be the daftest person in the world, Rachel!"

James would have felt quite sorry for Rachel if he hadn't just noticed Lily standing not but a few feet away, having just heard every word that had been said. She had an odd, knowing smile on her face, and James experienced an inexplicable feeling of dread on seeing it.

He decided it was time for drastic measures.

"Oh, look! I think he's going to show us those amazing magical skills I hear he's got!" Lauren squealed happily, noticing his wand in his hand. The other two girls smiled very widely.

"Well I'm actually – what are you doing – _give it back to me_," James growled.

The girls giggled and took turns holding James' wand as if it were the Holy Grail.

James considered disarming them, but he wasn't sure if their wands or his own would fly out of their hands.

"Give it back to me," James said, holding out his hand.

Rachel smiled and held his wand out, but withdrew it when James made to grab it. James breathed deeply, and wondered how his team mates would react if they ever saw him failing to retrieve his wand out of the hands of a thin sixth year girl.

"Oh, give it to me!" Lauren said with a giggle. She caught it and hid it behind her back, saying silkily, "Come and get it, Hunkie Poo."

A large snort sounded suddenly. They all looked to Lily, whose face was buried in a pile of books, heaving madly with what James was sure was laughter.

In their distracted states, James snatched his wand and heard Cassie murmur as he quickly ran away, "Poor Lily, she's been a disaster ever since Cory broke up with her, I heard…"

The aisles were a mere blur as he zoomed passed them, skidding to a halt at a bookcase stacked with new Quidditch books.

More to stop his heart hammering than anything else, he grabbed a random book and started reading about the longest slump in Quidditch history, a record of twenty thousand and twenty two straight losses by the Chudley Cannons starting from somewhere in the fifteenth century (the historian reckoned that the fans were too ashamed to give an accurate start point of their team's abysmal play) until now.

"James?"

His heart fluttered. The voice he dreaded, but the very same voice he would _never _get used to, not for as long as he lived.

He slowly made an about face. "Lily?"

She raised a pile of books in her arms and grinned so widely it must be smarting. "Done."

"What?" James said dumbly. Suddenly, he said, "Do you need help with -?"

"I'm not as slight as I look, but thanks for offering. Where's Alice?" Lily readjusted the books in her arms. She looked around the shop until her eyes landed on Alice, who was standing with a tall figure among some shelves near the check-out counter.

James remained silent because his clothes suddenly felt entirely too small for him. He tugged his collar feeling very hot; Lily was completely oblivious.

"So, do you…I mean I'm really sorry – and although unleashing those monsters on me was cruel" – he heard Lily trying not to giggle, but failing, and James couldn't help but smile – "I guess – I dunno, I'm really sorry. I really am. I won't do that anymore. I was a git."

Lily looked up at him with an unidentifiable expression.

James heard the Gigglers again, but once they saw his face they moved right a long like museum-goers deciding the exhibit was too dull. He tried his best to keep his attention solely on the witch before him.

"Don't expect me to forgive you next time," she said coolly. James bit his lip, knowing this was the very best he could hope for. "It was only because she called you Hunkie Poo. I'm being absolutely serious. Send her flowers," she added, as if she had just read his mind.

She looked at Alice again, then quickly back at James as if she had witnessed something indecent.

"Who is she with?" she asked.

"With who where?" James said. He looked behind Lily's shoulder.

"Oh. I don't know…must be that bloke I bumped into," James said. In the distance, he saw Alice smile.

Lily pulled James deeper into the Quidditch section. "We mustn't spy!"

James rolled his eyes, his arm still tingling pleasantly where she had touched it. "I was not _spying_, I was gauging her reactions."

"It's quite plain that she's flirting James. You ought to know all about that," she said crossly, hugging her books close to her. "He looks like a Ravenclaw – I wouldn't have figured he was her type but, who knows."

James peeked around the shelves at Alice, whose lips were turned down firmly.

"James!" Lily hissed.

"How do you know he's a brain?" James asked.

"The way he holds himself – all the Ravenclaws have this certain way they carry themselves, and look. He doesn't even have a book with him, he's probably just strolling about, trying to look clever. Not in a haughty way – that's just the way they are," Lily observed.

"You got all that from watching the way his spine is supporting him?" James said, raising an eyebrow skeptically.

"His tie's dark blue, are you happy?" Lily snapped.

"I thought so," James said. "And if there one thing _I_ know, it's that they're not planning a lunch date. Either he is trying completely too hard to make her smile and is failing dismally, or they're having a row."

"Are you quite sure this is what you're seeing or what you want to see?" Lily asked.

James whipped his head around to narrow his eyes at the redhead. "Didn't quite catch that."

"Potter," Lily said flatly, and James' heart sank a little. "You can't be the only important male in her life forever." She paused. "I saw your reaction when Rachel said you might like Alice."

"Are you saying you're going to believe _Rachel Wood_ – ludicrous –" James spluttered, his cheeks turning bright pink. "I don't –"

"It's alright, I won't tell her," Lily said with a small smile as if she had known some secret of his all along. "I'll go pay for these now."

James eyes widened and he grabbed her arm before she could go. Lily stopped and looked at him, visibly peeved.

"I don't fancy Alice," he said, slowly and clearly, looking at her full in the face, knowing he had crossed an invisible line again too soon, but she needed to understand. Lily didn't say anything at first, and looked into his glasses rather than into his eyes.

"Right," she said sweetly, obviously not believing him. "I've got to go look for a book now. I'll find you guys later. Bye, James."

With that, she wrenched herself out of James' grasp and James bit his lip hard, drawing blood. "Fuck," he breathed.

Bloody fantastic; Lily thought he fancied Alice.

He watched Lily walk away, wondering how on earth he was going to fix this, when he suddenly caught sight of Alice again, who looked positively livid. His blood seemed to boil, too, even though he had no idea why she was angry. Maybe it was the fact that the world seemed to be out to get him coupled with her displeasure that made him angry. He sauntered over to her in long strides.

"Funny, most people would worry about losing a mother's love, not her money," said a deep voice.

"All right, Allie?" James said pointedly, noticing the heartbroken expression on her face. As he said this, he looked at the tall, dark haired wizard who had spoken; he finally recognized him as Alistair Hansen, a fellow Ravenclaw seventh-year. He was scanning the top of the shelf, ignoring James' sudden appearance.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Alice said shrilly.

"Only what you'd like it to mean, Prewett." He looked at her haughtily, still ignoring James's glare. "Maybe your family didn't have enough money to bribe Dumbledore, and that's why you weren't made prefect?"

James noticed the prefect badge on his robes.

"Walk away, Hansen," James said calmly, feeling the heat radiating from Alice's body.

Suddenly, he noticed the absence of the soft, distant giggling he had previously thought was ringing in his ears. The Gigglers must have left. He pulled a book at random from a shelf and prepared to hide his face with it at a moment's notice.

"Ah, I've received intelligence that you've got yourself the Head Boy badge. It should have been a Ravenclaw, in my opinion, but congratulations," Alistair said as though he had just noticed the messy-haired wizard. James said nothing, but Alistair continued talking. "Maybe you could loan the Prewetts some money. Ah, Potter, that wouldn't be wise," Alistair added hesitantly, looking warily at the wand James was now pointing at his chest.

"Don't be a fool. Leave," James growled, throwing the book aside. Alice held up a hand.

"James got the badge because he's a powerful wizard who is really smart," Alice said sharply, looking into Alistair's light blue eyes. James glanced at her quickly.

Alistair scoffed and chuckled lightly. "A Gryffindor, brighter than a Ravenclaw? You are very lucky you are very pretty, Prewett," Hansen said with a wink.

Alice winced.

"If you've got a smidge of intelligence, you'll leave right now," James threatened, and stepped closer to Hansen, who was about half an inch taller.

"You won't dare, Potter -"

"I'm no coward," James said loudly. "Nor do I particularly care about rules. I will jinx you, I will curse you, I will _duel _you, and I will win."

"Get the wand away from me," Alistair said.

"You best be on your way, then, Hansen, before my emotions get the better of me."

Alistair set his jaw and nodded curtly at Alice. "Have a wonderful day." He was not carrying a book in his hand as he exited the scene.

Alice rounded on James. "James, I was fine on my own. He wouldn't have dared start anything with me."

"What's wrong with helping out a friend?" James said, making his way to the front of the store with Alice at his side.

"You weren't helping, you threatened him!"

"You're like my little sister, Allie, you can't expect me to – to," he faltered under Alice's rapid blinking.

"But I'm _not_ your little sister, stop _treating _me like one!" she said thickly, elbowing past him to get to Lily, who he hadn't realize was in sight again. She was now sitting at an unoccupied table, lost in a book.

The events of the still-young day overwhelmed him all at once: Lily had been mad at him and now she had the completely wrong impression about him and Alice; that idiot had remonstrated him for sitting on the floor (not that he particularly cared); the Gigglers had annoyed him to the point of suicide; and now Alice was continuously rejecting his efforts to console and help her. It was like the world was teaming up against him. James couldn't take it anymore.

"Bloody fucking hell to Merlin's -"

"Mate, you sure you want to finish that?" said Sirius Black, appearing out of nowhere, nodding at a middle-aged witch, who looked ready to hex James as she shielded her small child's ears.

"Let's take a stroll after you've paid for your things," Sirius said calmly, unperturbed by James, whose temper was threatening to haze his vision.

After James had paid (Sirius had had to pick up the gold that had fallen when James slammed it on the table), they took their bags and began walking slowly back to the witches and Peter, who were now all congregated at Lily's table.

"I don't want to bloody talk about it," James said, even though Sirius hadn't asked. When Sirius didn't respond, but merely smirked at several passing witches, James said heatedly, "If you're not going to bloody well hear me out -"

"Prongs, you're barking mad," Sirius said in that same cool tone. "Is it Lily or Alice?"

"I told Lily I don't like Alice. Alice thinks I think she's like a sister that always wants help."

Sirius squinted thoughtfully. "You shouldn't have to tell Lily you don't like Alice," he guessed. James nodded, his frown softening.

"Alice is bitter Lily got the Head Girl badge. Let it go, it's not your fault. You don't see her having a go at Evans, do you?"

James was barely listening to anything Sirius was saying anymore as a tall boy had caught his eye. He felt like a hawk sweeping in on its prey as he watched Alistair take the steps to reach Alice and Lily.

"Let's check out these books," James said quickly, tugging Sirius rather roughly by the arm into an aisle within hearing distance of the girls. It dimly registered to him that Alice had told him not to interfere...that to do so again would only anger her more.

He dragged Sirius behind a small rack of newspapers, crouched down and stared intently at the girls and Alistair. Sirius followed his gaze.

"Wait – he's a brain, isn't he? I once snogged Marie Smith so hard in the Ravenclaw common room. They actually like me – the brains, that is. They would have let me shag her right there near the fire, no doubt," Sirius said. He paused. "I forgot this guy's bloody name – Alby, Alan...?"

"Shh," James said slowly. "Alistair," he added hastily, fixing his eyes on the small group.

"Ah, Alice," he heard Alistair say. "Did -"

"Alistair, this is Lily, you know Lily, don't you?" Alice said curtly. James' jaw dropped in horror. _Why_ was she introducing him to Lily? Sirius wordlessly placed a finger over his closed lips, his eyes watching the scene.

Alistair raised an eyebrow at Alice; then he inclined his head at Lily, who smiled meekly.

"Of course, Head Girl," he drawled. "Congratulations on that. Everyone knew it was going to be you," he said, with a smirk that suggested it was meant to be a heavy compliment. Lily's eyes darted to Alice's, who was determinedly looking at Alistair.

"Thank you, Alistair, but I never thought it was going to be me," Lily said so quietly that James had to lean slightly forward to hear her.

Alistair chuckled. "Always so modest." He turned to Alice. "Will you allow me to take your friend out for a drink?" he asked graciously as if they hadn't been in a nasty argument minutes before.

James snorted so loudly he and Sirius had to duck to avoid their curious glances. Before Alice could make the worst decision of her life, James stood and made his way to Alistair, who looked at him in surprise.

"Potter, hello."

James was about to tell him to stick his head in a regurgitating toilet, but Alice cut across him.

"Actually Alistair, James and" - she saw Sirius - "Sirius, and I were just about to go to Owl Emporium to get food pellets."

James tossed an icy glare at Alice. "What?"

"Let's _go, _James. You have her all to yourself, Alistair," Alice said cheerily, waving goodbye to the pair and tugging James away by the hand. She grabbed Sirius, too and they made their way outside, leaving a bemused Lily and a gleeful Alistair behind.

The still strong throng of people rushed passed them and they were pushed hard against the walls of the store.

Alice sighed when she saw the identical scowls on the boys' faces.

"I can explain."

* * *

And school starts for me tomorrow, so I'll have a harder time updating about every week/5 days like I did before. :/

I'll try my best though!

Review, please?


	10. Explanations: Take One

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. I'm just a writer using her characters or non profit use :)**

**Your reviews have been great so far! Thank you guys so much, and to my beta TheHorcruxHunter.**

**This chapter will include - something that will come up later, and that's all I'm going to say on the matter. And Alice's mother! Yay! (-.-)**

**Please read and then review on your way out?**

* * *

Chapter Nine 

Alice wasn't sure that she could say anything under James' livid eyes. They were forced to stay close to the windows of Flourish and Blotts, as the throng of people were still going strong in their haste to complete their shopping before school started.

"Let's go into that pub," Alice muttered, indicating the one directly across Flourish and Blotts, despite the sign quite clearly saying you had to be of age.

They made their way to the dingy-looking pub, and Alice opened the door. A very young witch was idly examining what appeared to be a quill at a small desk and looked up, startled, as if seeing customers were a rare occurrence. Behind her was a narrow door that Alice figured led to the café.

The witch's face visibly deflated as her gaze settled on their youthful faces. "I don't have time for this. Go buy your schoolbooks, kids." She stroked the feather on her quill, bored. Upon closer look, Alice realized it was much too thick to be a quill. The witch glared at her and stowed it in an opening under her desk.

"We're all of age," Sirius lied smoothly.

The witch looked at him with distaste. "Do you think I'm a fool, boy?" She spoke as if she had grown up way too early. "I can see your bags filled with those magic books."

Alice tugged Sirius's shirt and began saying, "Let's just go," but James resisted.

"We have early birthdays. I'm surprised you work here, young as you are." James gave her a charming smile. The witch's red hair turned dark brown and her skin paled. She stood up and clutched the desk with bloodless hands.

"You think I'm here by choice?"

Alice was alarmed by this unexpected outburst and wanted to leave more than ever, but Sirius and James' resolve only hardened.

"Let us in," Sirius said, nonplussed. "We're not going to cause trouble; we just fancy a chat."

"Neville!" the witch bellowed fearfully, and her hair faded into a dirty blond.

"So," James said conversationally. "You're a Metamorphamagus?"

"_Neville!" _

"Who is this Neville fellow?" Sirius asked politely, raising his eyebrows when the door creaked open.

A short and very fat man with a receding grey hairline appeared behind the witch and laid a hand on her waist. He was dressed in an impressive grey suit and tie.

"Amelia?" he prompted.

"We were just leaving, sir," Alice said more firmly this time. She noticed his bulging stomach; _it_ had not been the only reason he had found difficulty in squeezing through the doorframe: it was, she saw now, unusually narrow.

The man's dull blue eyes lit up when he laid eyes on her. "Ah, Amelia. She's perfect."

"What?" Alice asked loudly, but with a slight tremble in her voice. She realized suddenly, far too late, that this was not a pub as they had previously supposed.

"Fancy a drink with me, my sweet?" Neville asked, his lip curling. His eyes darted keenly from Sirius to James. "Ah, these must be your people," he purred. He stepped away from Amelia. "Don't worry dear; they are going to be taken care of."

"Don't touch us," Alice said forcefully. She did not know what made her say it when it simply seemed as if they were discussing the prerequisites of a business plan. She took out her wand and pointed it at Neville's heart, her hand shaking slightly. James and Sirius took out their wands in one almost choreographed motion, also sensing that things were not as they seemed.

"We were just going to leave," she said in a would-be calm voice, backing away slowly. "We can show ourselves the door."

Neville took out his wand and the door banged shut behind them. Alice felt her heart beat madly against her blouse, and wondered why, if it was working so hard, she had become so pale?

"Why are you leaving?" he asked softly. "Surely you would not have come if you didn't want to. And I think you wanted to."

Amelia busied herself with the quill again.

Alice retreated further, and bumped into James, who held her arm tightly. "Let go of me," she whispered. But she needed James' firm support; her knees would surely give away without it.

"Yes, let her go, and come to me," the portly man said eerily, stepping closer.

"_Stupefy!"_

They all looked around to see who had Stunned Neville. Alice opened her eyes wide when she saw that Amelia was holding her quill aloft, motioning for everybody to leave quickly. They didn't need to be told twice. But before any of them could make a move for the door, something seemed to occur to Alice because she lifted her wand quickly into the air and –

"_Stupefy_!" Alice shouted at Amelia, who slumped to the floor on top of Neville's back, her hair now a deep purple. They scrambled to the door, and once they were outside, far away from the pub in the blazing sun, Sirius gasped, "Had to make sure she didn't - ?

"- get in trouble, yes," Alice said hoarsely. James quickly stowed his wand in his back pocket. Alice watched with horror as three blond girls headed towards the very same place. They were constantly casting glances over their shoulders, as if to make sure James and the others were watching them.

She saw James' face whiten. "Give me a minute," he said hastily and ran to the girls, weaving in and out of the slowly thinning crowd.

"Blimey, that's Lauren, Rachel, and Cassie," Sirius said.

"What the _bloody hell_ are those kinds of people doing in Diagon Alley?" Alice said angrily, thickly disguising her fear. "That's the kind of bullshit they pull at Knockturn!"

Sirius must have taken her shaking hands for anger, for he said, "Don't worry, I doubt they're legal – the Ministry will get rid of them. They watched as James stopped the girls in front of the door and gestured to the building, his lips moving silently as he explained why they shouldn't enter it.

"Mind you," he said, turning to narrow his eyes at Alice, "we wouldn't have had to go in there if you hadn't set up Alistair with the girl James fancies."

She mumbled something unintelligible.

"Yeah, you don't know what to say? You know Prongs still fancies Lily, don't you?" Sirius asked sharply. Alice swallowed thickly. "Why the bloody hell would you set Lily up with a guy so soon, especially after – and I was there! - telling him yesterday that he should 'take baby steps with her'?"

"And the fact that you know Alistair was being a git to you," James interjected, back and looking slightly harassed and therefore more irritated. "You set Lily up with a really nasty bloke. And you know I fancy her."

Alice couldn't say anything. The disappointment in James' eyes made her feel unbearably horrible. She desperately wished she could tell him the truth: that maybe if Lily got to know other boys she wouldn't think twice about going for James, that there would finally be no obstacles between him and Alice. She only swallowed the impulse because Sirius was present. He went with James _everywhere_, Alice noted resentfully.

All she knew when she had seen Alistair coming towards her and Lily was that he could potentially be another wedge between Lily and James; and yes, yes she was selfish and a bitch and every name in the book – but every single damn time she had to decide between Lily and James, she was torn. She had chosen Lily last night, hadn't she? So this time she had chosen her feelings for James first. But this was a ruddy excuse. Friends aren't like clothes; you can't alternate them at your fancy. There needs to be a balance, maybe not a perfect and selfless one, but certainly one that is best for everyone.

Could she do _anything _but look into James' hurt face? Could she have what she wanted, and deflect James' criticism?

"I –" Alice cleared her throat, embarrassed at how timid she sounded. "I figured," she said in a stronger voice, sadness at what she was about to say violently racing underneath the words, "that if Lily saw how awful Alistair was…that that would make you look better, by comparison."

She looked down and fully expected the boys to look at each other in silent acknowledgement of her bluff; therefore, she was very surprised when she felt herself being hoisted in the air, in James' arms. She buried her face in his shoulder, peeking at Sirius who was looking at her carefully, and managed to cover her dry, but completely real sob with a mild cough.

She felt completely free in the air, wind slowly blowing through her hair, clutching James as if her life depended on it, feeling his smile as if it were her own. Then, because good things never last long enough to savor, Sirius had to ruthlessly run a knife through the moment.

"Lily at three o' clock," Sirius said, indifferent to Alice's brief spell of happiness.

James set her down and she looked to her left. The sun was setting at a ridiculously slow pace, providing an appropriately dramatic backdrop to the scene. Lily was walking – no, _stomping, _towards them, her red hair flying all about her in a very wild way; the sun was hiding just behind her head, so the effect of the orange skies and her haphazard mane of hair was frighteningly theatrical.

Alice was almost afraid of her.

"Let's see if you can make up a better story for Lily," Sirius murmured so that only Alice heard. She ignored him and pretended to be engrossed in the appearance of her red-faced best friend. Alice looked behind Lily; Peter was shining with sweat, using his arm, from which the bag from Flourish and Blotts was dangling, to blot his face.

"Um, hi Lily," Alice began nervously, but Lily narrowed her eyes and Alice closed her mouth at once.

"He showed me the best way to polish my badge," Lily said in a deadly whisper.

"What a charmer," Sirius snorted.

"_Look at my badge!" _Lily said, but she didn't hold it up for Alice to see, as she had expected. Alice snuck a look at James, who was trying his best not to yield to the smile that was tugging at his lips.

When Lily still didn't show Alice the badge, she asked hesitantly, "Where _is_ your badge?"

"You left me with that nutter who's been campaigning for Head since first year and you're wondering what happened to _my_ badge?"

"You're the one who brought it up -" Alice started defensively, but her next words never left her mouth. She dug her teeth deeply into her bottom lip when Lily shifted so that Alice could see the badge pinned to her shirt.

Sirius howled with laughter and slapped his knee when he caught sight of it as well. "Excellent!"

"I'm so sorry," Alice managed to say quietly, trying her best to contain the heaps of laughter inside of her.

"I guess you'll be sitting with the Ravenclaws, then?" James commented, his voice thick with amusement as he bent to examine the blue and bronze badge.

Lily shoved him away roughly and unpinned it, shaking it violently.

"I'm the best in the year at Charms and I can't change it back!" she said angrily.

"It isn't the badge's fault!" Sirius said, and laughed again when Lily glared at him.

"So…was that the highlight of your date?" Peter asked unexpectedly.

Lily took out her wand and Peter immediately hid behind James and Sirius.

"I'm just wondering why he changed your badge instead of mine," James said thoughtfully.

"You weren't with him long enough for him to say, 'Oh James, can I please see your badge?' and then have him say 'Can you please get me a drink, dear, I'm rather tired' while you stupidly left your badge with him to _get_ that bloody drink. _That's _why," Lily snapped, and poked the badge. The picture of the eagle wiggled then stayed still.

James smiled at Alice appreciatively.

Sirius laughed, "Well, that answers_ your _question too, Peter."

"Why didn't you ask the bloke to change it for you?" Peter asked.

"He left before I came back," Lily retorted.

"Here, let me try," James said, fingering his wand.

"No!" Lily said suddenly, a new idea dawning on her. She lifted her wand. "I can do it. I didn't think of this before but…_Cambio!_" The badge gleamed scarlet and gold and Lily smiled briefly. Then she rounded on Alice at once.

"Why?"

"I just thought he liked you – you probably made his day -"

"You're lying!" Lily accused shrilly.

Alice grinned. "Honestly, Lily, you can't tell me he didn't look interested. Who would have thought that he preferred the shade of scarlet on your badge to the one in your hair?"

"Well don't ever do that again unless the boy in question is male inclined. And if that wasn't bad enough," Lily said, trying to pin the badge back on her shirt, "I had to spend about a good half hour looking for you guys, and then I met those awful Potter Club girls on my way back."

"You mean Lauren, Cassie, and Rachel?" said Sirius.

"Yes."

"You sure didn't look annoyed when you were all conspiring against me back at Flourish and Blotts," James reminded her bitterly. Alice looked at Lily and James questioningly.

"You know very well that was because you were being a prat," Lily said heatedly.

"Okay, yes, I agree, I deserved it!" James amended hastily, trying to tame the spark before it burst into flames.

"They're idiots," Lily said shortly.

"They're actually not stupid," James said defensively, as if his admirers shouldn't be considered less than worthy of his attention. "They're ditzy, yes, and I want to donate each of their larynxes to St. Mungo's, but they did brew a Love Potion correctly and manage to bewitch my broom. They got Outstanding in Potions and Charms...not unlike you, of course," he added, with a big smile to Lily.

"Wait, how do you know that?" Alice asked. "They're all sixth years, meaning they must have gotten their results not too far back."

"Ask me no questions and I shall tell you no lies," James said.

"He's probably just after chatting them up a little. Couldn't resist, eh, Jamsie?" Sirius said cheekily, earning a scowl from James.

At this, Lily looked at him with raised eyebrows. "Are you sure you don't mind their attention, then?"

James mirrored her expression. "Of course I do. They tried to steal my wand for Merlin's sake!"

"Okay, what exactly happened at Flourish and Blotts?" Alice asked sharply.

"We had a nice chat, is all," James said airily.

"That's right, Hunkie Poo," said Lily with the shadow of a grin.

Alice blanched and said "_What?" _while Sirius mouthed "ouch," wincing.

"Never mind it," Lily said with a short giggle. She suddenly turned somber. "What were you lot doing while I was gone?" she asked abruptly with a tone that suggested it better have had been mundane.

"Funny you ask. Let's walk back to the Leak and Alice will tell you all about it," Sirius said as they began walking. "Alice?"

"We wanted – er, some drinks, so we went into a pub across from Flourish and Blotts -" Alice began.

"Let the stenographer note that Alice suggested this," James said in a mock serious tone.

The brown-haired witch tossed him an exasperated look before continuing.

"Well we went in and there was a witch and she said we weren't allowed in because we were under-age. Then Sirius lied to her," she said, noting that Lily's face was free of any judgment so far. "And then the witch insisted that we leave and then stuff happened and we left," Alice finished quickly.

"Oh, I think you left out a few bits," Sirius said airily.

"Stuff happened? Like what, Black?" Lily asked.

"Like, the witch was a Metamorphamagus and had a quill that was really her wand and that this sleazy looking fat toad appeared from behind a door that not even Stick Stacy could squeeze through and tried to take Alice for bodily services – ah, there's that charming place," Sirius said, directing Lily's horrified eyes at the innocent looking pub with the large sign bearing the admission policy.

"He – you – then – how'd you escape?" Lily said, stunned; she looked at Alice up and down, as if she expected to see a sign of struggle on her person. "Why didn't you leave when you were told to?"

"We reckoned she was just yanking our wands…how were we supposed to know that they didn't have fire whiskey on their menu?" James said, eyeing the pub grimly. "All I was thinking was what the fuck was this doing in Diagon Alley and not Knockturn?"

"Maybe it is in Knockturn, as well," Lily said quietly.

"How? Do you think it's just there as a front office and the real headquarters dig deep into Diagon Alley and poke out the other end to Knockturn? Oh, wait," James said, interrupting himself comically and pondering this thought.

"Can we stop talking about this?" Alice said, opening the archway and stepping through into the Leaky Cauldron courtyard.

"You were the one who took us there, remember?" said Sirius.

"Alright, drop it, Padfoot," said James.

For some odd reason, Lily gave Alice a knowing look when James said this …but she didn't know what she was supposed to know…

She must have missed something while she was thinking about this, because James said to Lily, "Don't hold your breath. You already know that I don't -"

"I'll go first then! Okay, brilliant!" Sirius said loudly, taking a handful of Floo Powder and throwing it in the fire. "Prewett Estate!"

Peter followed him, and then Lily.

"Oh!" Alice gasped. "I forgot to tell Lily to take off her badge!"

She had decided to tell her mother the bad news without the latter first seeing the badge on someone else's robes, to save embarrassment for Alice and Lily both.

"Don't worry," James said, putting a sooty hand on Alice's shoulder after he had transferred the Floo powder from his right to his left hand. Alice noticed he seemed barely able to stop smiling at her since Lily had recounted the details of her horrible not-date. Although his smile certainly made her happy, it did not ease the tension she felt.

After James was gone, she took some powder and threw it into the fire. She stepped in and said in a voice that wasn't too confident: "Prewett Estate!"

In a few seconds, she stumbled out of the fireplace, brushing herself off. Barney was there, cleaning up the mess happily. That could only mean one thing -

"Alice!" her mother called from the far end of the room. She walked over, holding a large parchment in her hands. Alice recognized it as some sort of welcome back card. "Come on, tidy up – you've got a bit of soot on your shoulder, yes, there... now, let's have a nice talk."

Her mother had short brown hair and crow's feet etched deeply into the skin around her eyes. Her smile was taut as she looked at Alice with pale green eyes.

"Hey mum," Alice said with faux cheerfulness. She held out her arms for a hug.

Mrs. Prewett frowned deeply, and for a split second Alice was reminded of Professor McGonagall when James and Sirius were acting up.

Alice dropped her arms and clasped her hands together. Ironically, nobody was sitting in the sitting room. On the contrary, they were all standing, shifting from foot to foot - all nervous besides James, who was looking at her mother expectantly; Lily had her head slightly bowed.

"I asked Lily why she had your badge," Mrs. Prewett said quietly, looking her daughter in the eyes. "Do you know what she told me?"

Alice stayed silent, not moving, and looked back into her mother's eyes so as not to meet the gazes of her friends. Maybe if she was lucky, a quick lecture followed by an appropriate shade of ashamedness on her own part would suffice.

"That it's her badge," said Alice's mother, and she let this sink in and fester. "Her badge, Alice," she prompted sharply, and Alice started.

"I'm sorry, mum," Alice mumbled almost automatically.

"That's what you said in your fifth year, when you failed to get a Prefect badge."

Alice bit her lip, face reddening in shame. She saw out of the corner of her eye that Sirius was elbowing Peter, his eyes darting to the door pointedly.

"No," Alice's mother said to Sirius, noticing this. "You can all stay right here. Maybe Alice needs to know what humiliation feels like; she clearly doesn't understand what it feels to be ashamed."

Alice tried to breathe evenly.

"Mrs. Prewett, no disrespect, but I think you're being a little too harsh with Alice," James said bravely.

"James, I have allowed you to stay in my home with my daughter with no adult supervision," Alice's mother said crisply. "Do not make me regret it."

"Not at all, ma'am," James said earnestly. "But I just don't think there's any point in going on about something you can't change."

Mrs. Prewett's eyes bored into each of Alice's friends', as if to let them know the extent of the shame they should be feeling. She said, "This will be your last day here. It was lovely having you here -"

James opened his mouth but Alice interrupted him, unable to fathom this.

"How would you know, you weren't even here," Alice blurted. "You never are."

"Be quiet Alice, or I shall send your friends packing tonight. I'm going to go upstairs and rest. Merlin knows I can do with some," said her mother, and walked to the door, Barney right behind her. She paused with her hand on the knob. "You lot ought to do the same," she said firmly. It was an order, not a request.

"Mum, that's not fair!" Alice protested, watching as her friends filed out of the room, James looking at her apologetically.

Mrs. Prewett turned around to face her daughter again. "Keep your voice down, Alice," she said calmly, as if Alice was a bratty child who needed to have sense talked into her.

Alice looked about her; it was now just her and her mother on the battlefield.

"Can't they stay until the first day of term? Please?" she asked hopefully.

"They'll be gone tomorrow."

"And you?"

"What about me?" her mother asked coolly, her impatience tangible.

"Are you going to be gone, too? You're just going to leave me alone, and knowing that Daddy may not come either? Leave me here with that barmy elf without even my friends? Without James? Two days may be nothing to you, mother, but they're everything to me," Alice choked out.

"Your father -"

"Is just as unaccountable as you are!" Alice interjected angrily, tears beginning to pool in her eyes.

Mrs. Prewett looked at her daughter sternly. "Seeing as how _James _was made Head Boy, I hoped having him around would encourage you to be better. That is obviously not the case."

"But what do you want me to do? It's not like I can hope to be Head Girl two point oh next year – there is no next year," Alice reminded her, trying to tether her mother to her side of the story with her useless protests.

"Please, Alice," said Mrs. Prewett, and for a brief, strong moment, her cold exterior gave way to raw disappointment. This hit Alice harder than anything. Did her mother not understand there were far worse things she could be as a daughter than simply unlucky in not getting the Head Girl badge? That she could be sick, or selfish, or rebellious, or – or a pureblood supremacist?

"Mommy," Alice whimpered when she realized that her mother was slipping away from her, and that she had not heard the words that Alice was feeling in her heart.

Mrs. Prewett looked as though she would like to say something, but she blinked rapidly and then was gone.

Was she ever here, Alice wondered, staring dumbly at the door; her mother was just on the other side. Always close, never there.

Feeling void of any emotion inside of her, she trudged up to her room, savoring the long sixty two steps it took to get there. She fully appreciated the dynamics of metaphysics. Walking, the act of moving forward: an act completely in her control, which was made ten times harder by her weary heart.

Lily and James were leaving in a day.

Sirius, who she could tell was growing steadily suspicious of her behavior, was becoming uncomfortable to be around. Suppose he blabbed and told James that she fancied him? She would lose James.

Barney would be her only company.

The thought of being with a creature who accepted, even loved her mother to the point of absurdity made her want to scream.

She was on step thirty two before she realized she was counting.

If only Lily hadn't gotten the badge…but she stomped this thought out of her mind before it took full bloom. She would not go there.

Step forty five…

Only two more days until Hogwarts…and then she would be with her friends all day, every day.

Fifty two…

Sixty…

Sixty one…

Sixty two.

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**Review, please?**


	11. Fun: Take One

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. I'm just a writer using her characters or non profit use :)**

**A/N: This took way too long. I understand if half of you don't even want to read it now, or lost interest in it. I just hope you can jump back into it!**

**Recap: Alice has a crush on James who likes Lily who had broken up with her boyfriend Cory. Alice's mom is a bitch and James and Lily became friends.**

**If you decide this was worth your time, review and maybe I can get chapter 11 up before the week ends!**

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Chapter Ten

What the fuck, Alice thought as she stepped into her room. She slammed the door closed; they didn't even flinch.

Lily was standing in front of Peter, James, and Sirius, and each wore an expression that was a mixture of curiosity and determination. Alice felt too rotten to even announce her presence to them. But what were they doing in her _room?_ And not waiting in solemn silence for her to return and relay the worst her mother had dished out at her?

"They you put your left foot in again," Lily said slowly, watching as the boys copied her movements with utmost concentration, "and then you shake it all about."

"Wait! You're going too fast!" James cried. "Shake what? Shake _what_?" He looked to Sirius quickly, and snapped his fingers impatiently. "Show me!"

"James," Lily said calmly. "Shake it" - she wiggled her foot - "all about."

Peter jerked his leg repeatedly; to an outsider, it would have seemed like he was trying to get rid of a bug that was clinging to his leg.

"No, no. Like this," Lily said patiently, and demonstrated once more. Sirius glared at Lily.

"Lily, are you quite sure this is safe?" he asked seriously. "This sounds like a ritual for some really Dark Magic - stop laughing, you lunatic, you can't joke around like that! Stop it!" he yelled at Peter and James, who had been restarting the entire routine.

"It's the Hokey Pokey!" Lily laughed, barely able to get her words out.

Sirius turned bright pink.

"Every muggle knows this dance," Lily said; her laugh had dwindled down to an amused grin. James looked at her with fascination.

"I think I've heard of it before," Alice said quietly, watching their faces carefully.

Their heads snapped around to Alice. Peter stopped moving his leg and they all stared at her for a couple of long minutes, as if they were expecting her to blow up in tears or laugh at their stupidity. James was the first to break the tense silence.

"Are you okay, Al?" he asked softly.

"Didn't you hear me come in?" she asked loudly.

"Sorry, Alice. We thought it was Barney. He came in and slammed the door about a dozen times before when he heard us talking about how unfair your mum was being," Lily said in a low voice.

"If we had known it was you we would've -" James began.

"Pretended you cared?" Alice cut across coldly.

"Of course we care!" James said hotly.

"I suppose you cared so much you started prancing about?" She did not know why she was continuing this lifeless argument.

"Lily thought -"

Oh, so Lily thought. This gave her a mad desire to roll her eyes and stomp her foot childishly.

"Continue then, if you must," she said irritably, going for her bed. "I'm just going to go lie down." She plopped down on her bed and sighed into her pillow. The room was uncomfortably quiet. For the first time, she wished she was alone. She got the feeling that everybody was looking at her…or talking about her. She pressed her face harder into the pillow.

"Well we didn't want her to come up to find us pitying her did we?" Sirius said loudly.

Alice relaxed her hold on the pillow.

"We figured it was best for her to come up and have fun on our last day together, right?" Peter said just as loudly.

Alice wondered why they were raising their voices, and James' next words were her answer.

"I mean, we're all gone tomorrow…" James said in a carrying voice.

Alice flushed into her pillow.

There was a long silence again. Then she heard Sirius say, rather seriously, "Don't get carried away, Prongs."

"Why not?" James replied.

Sirius hesitated. "You're heavy."

Alice's eyes widened. She flipped over just as James' heavy weight sank into the spot she had just vacated.

He beamed at her as she looked at her ceiling. But she just wasn't in the mood.

"Leave me alone," she mumbled.

But she could feel her resolve weakening. As much as she wanted to mope and show her mother how miserable she was making her feel, she felt a stronger pull towards her friends and making this last day with them memorable. But still, she thought sadly. Were they trying to have fun for her benefit or their own? Immediately she closed her eyes and bit her lip, hard. Of course it was for her benefit; James and Lily were the most selfless people in the world, and would do anything to make her happy. They couldn't care less if her idea of entertainment was dressing them as cows and watching them play Quidditch – they would do it if it made her happy. This thought made her giggly softly.

And Peter and Sirius cared too…Sirius…maybe too much about her _feelings_…

She opened her eyes at once; she felt someone's hand on her own. She held her breath as James began talking, as if speaking would make him realize that it was Alice's hand he was touching and remove it.

"Let's go to that creek behind your house," James said quietly. He looked into her eyes as he said this, and it was only due to his familiar face that she did not flush. His brown eyes were smoldering her, begging her to make the last day count and to be happy.

The others might as well have not been there.

"That - that creek's not ours," Alice said softly, sitting up slowly. James took his hand off of Alice's; she tried her best to not notice its absence or let it show on her face.

"It's not? We went there before," said James.

"That's because the Robinsons allowed us - they're on vacation now, you see."

"Let's sneak in!" Peter said excitedly, and she looked around to see him looking at Sirius, as if expecting approval for his brilliant idea.

"I'll eat James if the Robinsons don't have Stealth and Sensory Charms all around their property," Sirius said in a deadpanned tone.

"Oh," was all Peter said.

"But if you all fancy a swim," Alice said, "I think there's a small lake just before you head into the Quidditch pitch."

"'Small lake?'" Sirius repeated with a snort. "A pond, maybe. A gnome wouldn't drown in there."

"If you'd like to suggest -"

"Let's talk a walk in the forest," James interrupted, eying Alice and Sirius warily.

"Sounds good," Alice said and James beamed at her.

"There's nothing dangerous in there, right?" Peter said nervously.

"Pete, how many times have we gone into the Forbidden Forest?" Sirius snapped.

Peter flushed and said nothing.

"So it's settled then!" James said. "Hopefully we'll stumble across a troll or something."

Alice pondered this thought. Her potentially mangled, bloody, body would make her mother sick with grief and remorse…

"Trolls live in the mountains," Lily reminded him.

"Hold on there!" Sirius said to James, lifting a finger to silence Lily. "You're on Magical Creatures Probation, remember?"

"What?" James retorted. "That was lifted ages ago. Right after you insulted that Hippogriff and you started yours!"

"What the bloody hell is a Magical Creatures Probation?' Lily asked.

"Moony made it up so that we don't die," James said unhelpfully. "And that centaur was such a pansy."

"You asked him if there were any pink centaurs!" Sirius said. "You know we shouldn't mess with the centaurs because of -"

"Sirius," James said sharply.

"Centaurs are very easily offended," Sirius amended smoothly. "They _hate _wizards."

"Anyway, it wouldn't matter if _I _insulted them. If we ever came across them again, I would have four…well, you know," James said, eying him pointedly. "And the fact that you called the Hippogriff a nasty sight - it's a miracle we got out of there alive."

"Lucky Wormtail was there," Sirius said, grinning at the memory. "Although I thought that Hippogriffs preferred ferrets."

"I thought Hippogriffs preferred animals to humans in general," Alice said slowly.

James hesitated.

"I threw a stick at it," Peter said quietly. Alice raised her eyebrow skeptically.

"I'm so lost," Lily said.

"Speaking of lost," James said, looking at Alice who was beginning to rummage through her drawers, "don't bring the map, Allie. We won't lose our way."

Alice stopped and looked at James.

"It's a pretty big forest, James." Then, remembering she wouldn't mind it too much if she got lost with him, she said, "No map then."

"Aren't you going to tell your mum?" Lily said, shooting a glance at her.

"No," she said shortly.

As they walked down the hall way and stairs, past the kitchen and sitting room, and outside into the dense darkness, James and Sirius muttered excitedly to each other about different situations in which they would defend themselves from highly dangerous creatures, probation forgotten. Peter nodded eagerly at every suggestion that he would be the sacrificial lamb, even though that was a joke on James' part.

"I'm surprised you guys haven't been here before," Lily commented as they walked across the immense Quidditch pitch.

"Never at night," James said, who was holding his wand between his index and middle fingers, making it look more like an accessory than a weapon.

"It's almost like we're back at Hogwarts!" Sirius said gleefully, tossing his wand in the air and catching it.

"You're going to burn a hole through your palm," Alice warned. Despite her bravado, she was jumping at every hoot of an owl and every chirp of a cricket.

"If only Moony was here," James said wistfully, his smile widening once they reached the forest. Alice never went in too far. Even though unicorns were most likely the most dangerous creature she'd find…she didn't want to think about what kind of creatures were lurking in the dark shadows.

Lily looked up nervously. Alice knew why; the sky was not visible anymore.

"Lily, look!" James said, holding out his ignited wand. He pointed his wand at a spot above his head and the silhouette of a tree was revealed. Its bark was duller and thinner than the rest; its brown leaves drooped like an unsmiling mouth, making it look almost depressed.

"What is it?" she asked, following his lead. "Why does that tree say Lily?" She squinted and looked closer. The word Lily was written in choppy line segments, most likely from the strong end of a stick and the even stronger persistence of its designer.

"You have a tree named after you!" Sirius said enviously, elbowing James aside.

"Wait, Alice. Did you carve my name on it?" Lily asked, smiling at her.

"A lady's great-grandmother owned the house before my parents did," Alice said having seen the tree before several times.

"Interesting," Lily said.

"I still say it's your tree," James said, grinning at her. Lily rolled her eyes and began walking again before James could see her smile, Alice noticed. Not wanting to be left behind with three boys who craved danger, she went ahead with Lily. They walked on in silence, following a winding path through the dense trees.

"There's nothing dangerous here, right?" Lily asked calmly. Before Alice could answer, a loud crack like a twig breaking sounded suddenly and they jumped. Lily jerked her wand sharply to the right her wand to her right, and Alice did the same. "Nothing," she breathed.

"Lily, where's the rest?" Alice asked, looking about her, suddenly noticing the boys' absence.

"They're probably looking for an acromantula or something, they'll catch up."

The trees were becoming less dense as they walked further. Alice heard the faint sound of rushing water and she nearly ran ahead. She stopped dead at a wall of trees. She could not see around them; they were close together and perfectly aligned, almost like a picket fence.

"Let's walk around them?" Lily suggested.

They retreated and walked to the left, their strides becoming longer to avoid small bushes and bunnies.

Again they were met with a thick wall of trees.

"What the fuck?" Alice said loudly, surprising Lily. She was evidently still internally fuming from the episode with her mother.

"Watch your mouth, Prewett," James said as he appeared with Sirius and Peter in tow. "Ah," he said upon looking at the trees, as if he had stumbled upon them before.

"I'm thinking whoever made the trees grow like this didn't want us to get to the water," Sirius said casually.

"You think this is deliberate, then?" Alice said.

"I think Sirius is being paranoid," Lily said briskly. "Stand back. _Depri -"_

"No!" James shouted suddenly.

Lily looked at him crossly. "What?"

"It's brilliant," James breathed, ignoring Lily. He went up and stroked the trees, but to their surprise, his finger glided over the bark as if it were glossy paper.

"_Diffindo_!" Lily said, and a loud ripping sound rent the air. They all stared dumbly at the torn paper.

"Well that was rather pointless," Alice said. "Who the hell would place a drawing of trees in the middle of a forest?"

"I think it's a joke, and that this Lily person was brilliant," Peter said, cottoning on to James' thinking.

"It was so realistic…Lily, what'd you tear it up for?" James asked, annoyed. There was a gaping hole in the canvas where Lily's spell had struck it, beyond which they could see nothing but darkness.

"Do you want to keep exploring or not?" Alice asked. Her voice was surprisingly steady, considering that every fiber of her being wanted to be away from what she was sure were orange eyes hidden behind every other tree.

"I don't know about you pansies, but I'm going in," Sirius said with a shark-like grin. He held his wand out like a sword and stepped through. "Wicked!"

Lily followed and Peter as well, climbing over the shredded paper carefully.

James paused, an idea occurring to him. "_Flagrate_," he pronounced, and a small but very bright red circle appeared on the tree. Alice looked at him and he explained, "So that we can find our way back." His quick thinking and magical skill did not surprise Alice, but she was nevertheless impressed by it. She smiled at the glowing circle and was grateful for how much she could rely on him.

Alice became suddenly aware that she was alone, and that James had gone through.

Alice quickly went through, accidentally ripping the paper more and widening the hole. A rather large river was weaving in and out of the trees, and Lily was alone near the bank, the boys mysteriously missing again.

"Lily?" Alice asked. She was sitting on a large rock, and she looked as if she had gone through many wars. Suddenly, she burst into tears.

"Lily!" Alice said, running over to her. She had not foreseen this – her friend had seemed to collected only minutes before.

"This is all my fault," she sobbed into her hands while Alice hugged her. "If I hadn't been made Head Girl -"

"No, don't -" Alice began helplessly but Lily carried on. Alice stepped away, alarmed.

"A-and Cory broke up with me, and I m-made Head Girl and your mum is in a right state and - and it's all my fault, e-everything!"

"What brought this on?"

"Alice I'm not s-stupid. We're only in the stupid forest b-because your mum got mad!"

With a pang, Alice thought about what James said about Lily being a mess, and looked at her best friend with pity. In sixth year, Lily had hardly ever cried.

"Lily, it's not your fault - hold on, we're awfully close to the water," Alice said nervously, looking around her, her wand aloft.

Alice heard a rustle in the leaves. She turned around and both she and Lily simultaneously let out a bloodcurdling scream. Three heavily disfigured creatures were running straight towards them, faces grotesquely skewed and mouth opened to show the semblances of three swollen black tongues.

Alice turned around and her heart stopped for one second as she saw the water rapidly becoming closer; she fell in with a loud splash. She didn't open her eyes as she thrashed around the cool water. She kicked hard and felt much stronger forces next to her. She kicked hard and felt droplets of water fly into her face from the opposite direction. She opened her eyes and saw red - was it blood? Oh Merlin, she was bleeding and her head had cracked open, she just knew it…but it looked too solid and stringy to be blood - Lily's hair! Panicking again, they both thrashed, and suddenly stopped. The water had gone into Alice's nose and some into her mouth, and then, feeling incredibly stupid, she stood up on her feet and coughed up the water. She dimly noted that the water barely reached her chest. She could barely see through the hair over her eyes that were acting as a thick screen. She peeled the hair away from her face gingerly.

Lily must have realized as well, for she began rising slowly, her hair also plastered to her face, her green shirt clinging to her skin and her cheeks bulging. A long, thick stream of water came out of her mouth.

James, Sirius and Peter were howling, giving each other high fives as their deformed faces slowly transformed back into their smooth skin and thick hair. Alice had an idea.

"Impermeabilus!" she said and pointed at Lily. Instantly, a bubble formed over her sopping head. Lily, in fierce understanding, repeated the Bubble Head Charm over Alice's head, and they both dunked themselves into the shallow water. Alice grinned at Lily from under the water, and they did not rise again for a few moments.

Predictably, soon enough, they saw shadows over the water, and simultaneously, they surfaced and then plunged again, pulling the boys into the water with them.

Lily and Alice stood up again and removed their Bubble Head Charms. They gave each other a high five and laughed. The boys still hadn't realized that the water was about four foot deep at best and were thrashing about as their victims had before them. Alice laughed harder when James stood up, hair completely flat, and spit a mouthful of water into Sirius' scrunched up face.

Alice made her way to the edge of the river and sat down, kicking off her sneakers and socks. Lily did the same and laid them aside before drying them with her wand.

"Didn't I tell you Alice could swim?" James hollered at Sirius accusingly. He wiped his glasses on his shirt before he realized it was wet. He dragged himself to where Lily was sitting.

"Clean my glasses," James said as he shoved the glasses at her. Lily took them with a laugh and tapped them with her wand. James heaved himself onto the moist grass. Sirius was helping a hysterical Peter get back up.

"There was something in there!" Peter cried fearfully.

Sirius took off his shoes and shirt, and dived right back in. Waist deep, he took out his wand and held it to the water. The water turned at the touch, and rose to splash against James, Alice and Lily, soaking them anew.

"You bloody prat!" James said, now taking off his own clothes, finally putting an Impervious Charm on his glasses and jumping into the river after Sirius.

Feeling vengeful and only very slightly amused, Alice lifted her wand and the water rose again and consumed Sirius who had been crying with mirth.

"Good one!" James winked at Alice, and she tried to ignore his toned body as it bobbed in the river.

James sent another wave at him but – "_Protego_!" Sirius shouted, successfully deflecting it and sending it flying back to James who, with visible effort, directed it with his wand to splash over the girls and Peter.

James guffawed at Lily, who had conjured a flimsy umbrella, and Lily threw it aside, laughing and holding her stomach as the water rained water on them all.

Alice inhaled water again, and after she had cleared her airway, she jumped into the water, onto forces of the Battle of Water.

"_Aguamenti!" _she shouted at James, who flicked it off towards Sirius with a chuckle.

Sirius waved his wand and the air smelled strongly of wine. James was wild in his laughter and taken over by the smell of wine as Sirius opened his mouth wide to catch the flying droplets with his tongue.

"You idiot!" Alice laughed, the wine now mixed with the water and her happiness. She was nearly floating in her euphoria.

"You stupid drunk!" James roared, nearly drunk in mirth, himself. "GO EVANS!"

Alice looked at Lily; she had cut off her long jeans into shorts and was looking determined as she jumped into the water. With a flick of her wand, a blast of ferocious wind aimed at James made his hair stand completely on end, as if every root on his head had been lifted.

Lily laughed and gave Sirius an air-five. She dived back under the water. Alice saw James go in after her, his eyes twinkling.

Sirius said, "Peek-a-boo I see you!" and Alice was catapulted to the other side of the river by a pair of strong arms. Alice waved her wand in a long, sweeping motion and the water surrounding Sirius began spinning, and Sirius had his hands up happily, his face becoming a blur in the rapidly moving whirlpool.

She saw Lily and James come up, and somehow Lily was on James' shoulders and trying to bend back so she could fall back into the water but James held her legs tight, his eyes crinkled in amusement.

Alice swallowed and said, "_Aguamenti!" _and then quickly went underwater.

After about an hour of more water fighting and Peter bobbing in the water like a buoy, they laid down on the damp grass, fully clothed and dry beside a fire Lily had conjured.

"That was amazing," Lily breathed.

"I've never had so much fun," Alice agreed, smiling at James who was not looking at her, but at Lily.

"Poor Moony," Sirius said, which was the first thing he said that did not express how sore and drunk he was.

"We'll come back," James promised. He flipped onto his stomach and looked at Alice. "I can't believe we have to leave tomorrow."

Alice smiled forlornly. "Let's not talk about that."

Lily, who had suddenly unleashed herself after her sobbing episode, was pacing the area, unable to stay still. Lily was pacing the area, unable to keep still, drained of all the stress from her sobbing episode and full instead of excitement.

"Let's go in again!" she said for the third time that minute.

"You can go in again," Sirius yawned. "Excuse me," he said quickly, and ran to a couple of bushes and vomited.

There was something too tender in the way that James was looking at Lily. Then he lay back again, and smiled in a way that Alice knew meant he was feeling at peace again.

She leaned back again as well, and finally felt the same peace (at least at the moment), that James felt.

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**Review please?**


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